Accra Hearts of Oak officials say their crucial LG Top 4 tie against Kumasi Asante Kotoko in Kumasi on Sunday would serve a vital preparatory purpose for their African champions league first round qualifier against Togolese champions AS Douanes.

Hearts team manager Steve Akwettey says playing an opposition like Kotoko would be good preparation for the Phobians before the vital African campaign begins on April 13.

“We have not played a team of Kotoko’s caliber in a while so playing them at this stage is good for us and generally for our African champions league ambitions. I can say for a fact that we are leaving nothing to chance. We want to win”, he said.

Hearts’ are desirous of putting up a good show in Africa this season after failing to go beyond the first round qualifying stage in the last two editions.

Hearts’ last failure was plotted by former African player of the year Abdul Razak who was then coach of Malian side Stade Malien. Razak would be on the bench for Kotoko on Sunday against the Phobians and has already declared he would repeat the Stade debacle on Hearts.

But Akwettey contends that predicting victory on the basis of a game that took place almost a year ago is a mistake. He says: “What Razak forgets is that the Stade game was played at a time when morale was at it’s lowest in Hearts. If he is going to predict the outcome of Sunday’s game on that then I can promise he would be in for a big surprise”.

Hearts would be without back to base defender Amankwah Mireku who is ineligible for the game after picking up two yellow cards in the competition but are likely to welcome back start striker Charles Taylor who is yet toplay in the competition after returning from trials in Switzerland.