SINGAPORE -- Wednesday's clash at Jalan Besar Stadium originally looked a dead rubber.
With Sanfrecce Hiroshima cruising to a 6-1 win over Lion City Sailors in last week's first leg of their AFC Champions League Two quarterfinal, progress for the J1 League outfit looked a foregone conclusion.
Then, an unexpected twist.
When it emerged that Sanfrecce's new signing Valère Germain, who came off the bench to score his side's fifth on debut, was actually supposed to be serving a suspension, the Asian Football Confederation moved quickly to overturn the result to a 3-0 win in the Sailors' favour.
It now means that the Sailors are not only well and truly back in the tie, they even have a three-goal advantage to protect.
Still, given how lethal they were in putting six goals past the Sailors a week ago, Sanfrecce should feel confident in their prospects of finding the back of the net once more.
All these factors promise to contribute to what should be an enthralling encounter on Wednesday, especially given Sailors coach Aleksandar Ranković will not exactly be looking to adopt a purely-defensive approach.
"We have an advantage that we didn't expect to have, so that has slightly changed the way we'll approach this game," said Ranković in Tuesday's pre-match news conference.
"Yes, defence is going to be very important tomorrow -- we're playing one of the best teams in Asia and definitely the strongest opponent we've faced since I joined the club. In the first [leg], we conceded some goals too easily, and they could have been prevented.
"But we're not going to sit back and defend for 90 minutes. We need to offer something against a team of this calibre. We have a plan, and I hope it works. We're going to give our all to reach the semifinals."
Likewise, Sailors captain Hariss Harun stressed the importance not to get too complacent with the 3-0 aggregate lead, especially given the opposition they are coming up against.
"We have a three-goal advantage, but we must acknowledge the quality of our opponents," added the Singapore international.
"The situation is in our favour now, but we're not reading too much into that -- there's still a game to play, and our focus is on ourselves and how we can get the job done tomorrow."
Despite his team's healthy lead now completely overturned, Sanfrecce coach Michael Skibbe remained optimistic in their prospects of reaching the last four.
"It will be a very interesting match tomorrow evening," said Skibbe. "We are here to play football, we are ready and we are confident in our chances of going through.
"The conditions are not ideal because [Jalan Besar Stadium] is an artificial pitch but, on the other hand, it's a nice, compact space. We have to stay focused on the match.
"We are aware of the result from the first leg, so we must produce the best football we are capable of."
With a clear target of needing to score at least thrice, Sanfrecce defender Sho Sasaki added: "We know what we have to do. It's a finely-balanced game.
"We will play offensively -- that's our usual style -- and we need to score tomorrow, so that will be our focus."