Talking to the-afc.com after the knockout stage draw of the premier continental club championship on Monday, Pakhtakor manager Samvel Babayan said his side had the ability to tame the West Asians.

“We played Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in the group phase and Ettifaq in the pre-quarterfinal this year and we have enough experience of playing West Asians teams in the previous editions of this competition,” he said.

“The reputation of our opponents doesn’t really matter for us because all the teams in the quarter-final stage are very good and strong. We will try our best and hope that we can pull it off over the two legs.”

Al Ittihad manager Hamad Al Balawi said his team’s aim was to rule the continent.

“We won the revamped Saudi League and hopefully we can win the title in the new AFC Champions League this year. We want to regain the Asian crown,” he said.

“Pakhtakor are a strong team as they managed to beat Ettifaq in the last 16 stage but we hope to clear this hurdle.”

He said Al Ittihad would play in the 12-team Peace Cup in Madrid from July 24 to August 2 as part of their preparations for the AFC Champions League quarter-finals.