Lee has scored nine goals in the competition this season,
but missed last week's semifinal second leg win over Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad
due to a calf injury and Jeonbuk coach Choi Kang-hee has confirmed the AFC Champions
League's top scorer is short of match fitness.
Jeong Shung-hoon, who has scored one goal in the
competition this season, is again set to lead the line for a Jeonbuk side who
will also be without captain Cho Sung-hwan and Croatian striker Kruno Lovrek
due to suspension.
I'am sad that some of the players cannot play, but we
have trained well this week and we are confident and will look to do our best,
said Choi, who masterminded Jeonbuk's 2006 AFC Champions League success.
Lee Dong-gook was injured, but he has recovered. The only
problem is he has lost some fitness, as he has not been able to train fully
this week. He wants to play, but he will be on the substitutes bench and I will
have to decide if he is ready to play during the game.
I have had some time since our last league game so there
will be no problem with the overall fitness levels of the team. We had a league
game against Chunnam Dragons last Sunday and not all of the players played so
we have had time to rest, so I am not worried about the fitness of the players.
Kim Sang-sik is expected to drop back into the center of
the Jeonbuk defense in place of Cho, with China's Huang Bowen in contention to
fill the void in midfield.
Jeong, who scored for Jeonbuk against Arema Indonesia in
the group stage, is set to play in a lone striker role, but the 32-year-old
striker is set to be supported by a potentially explosive midfield which
includes Brazilian Eninho, who has scored four goals in his last three AFC
Champions League outings to take his personal tally to six in the competition
this season.
A couple of players cannot play, but that is not
important. The team has prepared well for the game and we will try and give a
good performance, said Jeong, who has made eight appearances for Jeonbuk in the
competition this season.
I have to play in place of Lee Dong-gook, but I am fit
and have prepared well for the match, so I will try and fight and play my best.
I do not always play, sometimes I am a substitute, but in
the final I will try my best for my team.
Al Sadd, meanwhile, are boosted by the availability of
captain Wesam Rizik and forward Abdul Kader Keita and Mamadou Niang as Jorge
Fossati's side bid to become the first qualifiers to win the continental title.
Senegalese striker Niang and Ivorian forward Keita missed
Al Sadd's semifinal second leg against Korea's Suwon Samsung Bluewings last
week due to suspension, while Rizik suffered an injury in the first leg which
forced the midfielder out of the return fixture.
But with only Mesaad Al Hamad ruled out after the
midfielder suffered a broken nose during the ill-tempered semifinal first leg
win over Suwon, Uruguayan coach Fossati is confident Al Sadd can overcome their
underdog status to claim a first continental title since winning the 1989 Asian
Club Championship.
The game will be very tough, but from my point of view
the two teams that arrive in the final of the AFC Champions League deserve to
be congratulated because to get to the final is very difficult and both teams
deserve a lot of credit, said Fossati, who was in charge of the Al Shabab side
which beat Jeonbuk in last year's quarterfinals.
Nobody gave us a chance in the quarterfinals or the
semifinals and we know that Jeonbuk are favorites, but we are confident about
our chances.
I respect our opponent because we know they are a good
team, but we have a lot of confidence in our players' ability to win.
