Vissel Kobe ⁠coach Michael Skibbe is relishing the opportunity to test his team against a higher calibre of opposition when the J-League side play Roberto Mancini’s Al-Sadd in the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League Elite on Thursday.

Kobe, winners of the Japanese title in 2023 and 2024, have never won the Asian title and take ‌on the Qatari club, which eliminated four-time champions Al-Hilal from Saudi Arabia in a penalty shoot-out on Monday.

“This will be a very strong opponent, Al Sadd, as we have seen two days before,” said Skibbe, who is in his first season as Kobe coach after four years with Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

“I think this will be a very interesting match for us.

“From eastern Asia, it is not so easy to find very competitive teams because around us there’s the Japanese league, ⁠the Korean league and sometimes the teams from China.

“But in between there’s a far distance from the western part of Asia ‌and so we are very happy, after a long journey, to be here to show what a nice match we can have tomorrow.”