Littbarski: Saipa will stop Rivaldo

A 2-2 draw at the Azadi Stadium last week means that the 2007 Iran Pro League champions are likely to need a win at the MHSK Stadium on Wednesday to progress to the last four.

But after seeing his side twice battle back from deficits in the first encounter, the former West Germany international midfielder believes that they can get the result they require in Tashkent.

“We know much more about Kuruvchi than before including their strengths and weaknesses,” said a bullish Littbarski.

“I think that for the second leg, our physical conditioning will be far greater than theirs. Kurivchi are a good team but Saipa are stronger and we still have an excellent chance of reaching the semi-finals.”

Not surprisingly, Littbarski has singled out former World Player of the Year Rivaldo for special attention after the Brazilian netted his third goal in two games for the Uzbek side in last week’s draw in Iran.

“Rivaldo is their most effective player and we’ve made special plans for him,” the German explained.

“We gave him too much time and space (in the first half of the first leg) but closed him down better in the second half.

“We’ll mark him from the first minute to increase our chances of winning.”

Midfielder Kianoush Rahmati, whose deflected free-kick late in the first half cancelled out Rivaldo’s strike and levelled the tie at two goals apiece, feels that the mindset of his team-mates has been altered by their solid second-half performance in Tehran.

“We didn’t know much about Kuruvchi so we were almost in awe of them,” he said.

“But we stopped giving them too much respect in the second half and that performance is why I think we’ll beat them.”

Saipa skipper Ebrahim Sadeghi echoed those thoughts, saying he wanted the team to maintain the momentum from that second-half display.

“We have excellent players and coaches and with our new-found confidence, we can reach the next round,” he said

With no injury or suspension concerns, Littbarski is expected to name an unchanged line-up from the first leg for Wednesday’s match.