Andre Villas-Boas will send his Shanghai SIPG team out to face Chinese Super League leaders Shandong Luneng confident they can bounce back from their defeat to champions Guangzhou Evergrande and put their domestic campaign back on track.
The expensively assembled side lost to a late Ricardo Goulart penalty last week as Guangzhou ended Shanghai's perfect start to the year in all competitions, and Villas-Boas is wary of the threat posed by Felix Magath's side.
"We lost to Guangzhou in the last round, so tomorrow we hope to win and get back on the winning track," the Portuguese coach said. "Shandong have had a great start to the season. Their players understand the coach very well and the team is well integrated too.
"Tomorrow will be very difficult for us. For the past two or three days we have been putting the idea of getting back to winning ways into players' minds. We are aware of the challenges, but we are confident that we won't repeat the mistakes we made before and we will do our best."
SIPG won their first two games while also notching up four straight victories in the Asian Champions League, and Villas-Boas' team return to the continental championship next week after a break of almost a month.
A win over Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds on Tuesday could be enough for Shanghai to book their place in the knockout phase of the Champions League, but the former Chelsea coach stressed the game would have little bearing on his team selection for the meeting with Shandong.
"We haven't compared the importance of this game to the ACL match next week," he said. "We have to have a balance between the domestic league and ACL, they are both important to us.
"We will send out our best line-up tomorrow because our priority is to get back to the track of winning."
Magath, meanwhile, saw his team notch up a third win in a row last week as Shandong defeated Changchun Yatai to go along with wins over Guangzhou Evergrande and Tianjin Teda so far this season, and the coach is hopeful of a positive result despite SIPG's firepower.
"Just like Evergrande, Shanghai are also a team chasing the title," said Magath, whose team hold a perfect record in the league alongside second-placed Guangzhou R&F. "But we hope to show our quality too. For us tomorrow is about performing at our best.
"Hulk, Elkeson and Oscar are all very talented. Shanghai have the best the attacking force in the league, even when they leave out Odil Ahmedov.
"In the last round they lost to Guangzhou and that was a shame for them. This round they are playing at home and they will definitely go at full capacity in attacking and try to control the game. We will prepare accordingly."