Hamburg coach Martin Jol is adamant his side must create a comfortable cushion for themselves in Thursday night's UEFA Cup last-16 first-leg clash against Galatasaray.

Hamburg have home advantage for the first leg and Jol insists his team cannot afford even a draw at the HSV-Arena with the second leg at the daunting Ali Sami Yen Stadium still to come.

"You definitely need to be one or two goals ahead if you want to survive over there," he said.

"We have got to be tight at the back and make the difference with a goal up front.

"We will have to push ourselves to the limit."

Jol is focusing on his defence and admits he has yet to find the perfect formation.

He has used 10 players at the back so far this season and expects to make another change with Martin Gravgaard returning from injury.

Galatasaray must also make changes to their defence after selling former Stuttgart defender Fernando Meira to Zenit St Petersburg yesterday, which is why Jol feels his side's best form of defence will be to attack the Turks.

"They, like us, have problems at the back and we have got to attack them strongly," he said.

"The big clubs are the ones who don't concede and manage to make the difference in attack. That is where we want to get to."

Gala general manager Haldun Ustunel is not worried the sale of Meira - for a reported 7million euros - will necessarily weaken his side.

"Everybody can be replaced," he said. "The 11 lions who we field will represent Galatasaray well.

"Those who criticise us in the short term will acknowledge we were right in the long term."

Striker Milan Baros is suspended so coach Bulent Korkmaz should turn to former Monaco, Roma and Blackburn forward Shabani Nonda.

Meanwhile, Harry Kewell is fit and is likely to play in midfield alongside former Schalke midfielder Lincoln.

The HSV-Arena is a sell-out with many Galatasaray fans residing in the area expected to be among the 57,000 fans in addition to the official travelling supporters from Turkey.