Al Qadisiya kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 victory at Uzbekistan giants Pakhtakor last Wednesday and the 11-time Kuwait League champions will be keen to record a second win to go clear at the top of the group.

The team returned to Kuwait City on Thursday but their preparations were hampered when eight key players joined up with the Kuwait national team’s training.

Assistant coach Abdulaziz Hamada has stressed that their disrupted preparations might affect his side in the game.

"Since our arrival from Tashkent we have had three training sessions so far but we were without the players who joined the national team training," said Hamada.

"We haven’t sorted out any tactics for the game yet as a result and this will probably affect us.

"We have studied videos of Arbil’s matches and hopefully we can take advantage of their weaknesses. They are a strong side though and their players have good capabilities.

"The game is very important for us because in the first round things went our way after winning against Pakhtakor while Arbil and Al Gharafa played out a draw. As a result it is good that we will play Arbil in the second match.

"A win on Wednesday will give us a chance to go top and hopefully things will go our way in the other match between Pakhtakor and Al Gharafa."

Al Qadisiya go into the match without the services of two defenders after Ali Al Namash suffered a knee injury in training while Mohammad Al Nemesh is out with an ankle injury and will miss the game.

Arbil arrived in Kuwait City on Sunday without midfielder Khaldoun Ibrahim, who will miss the game due to injury and coach Akram Salman is looking to steer his side to their first win in the competition after a 1-1 draw with Al Gharafa in their opening game.

"We are going for a win after the disappointing draw with Al Gharafa," said Salman.

"But we know how difficult it will be against Al Qadisiya, who are one of the top teams in Kuwait.

"I’ve watched Al Qadisiya’s performance in their first match against Pakhtakor and they are going to give us a hard time on Wednesday.

"The game is very important for us because we will be playing against the leaders of the group and we have worked hard in training sessions on fixing the mistakes that we have made and preparing the players for the game."