We've kept best players in reserve

The 64-year-old revealed he could make five changes from the side which drew 0-0 in the first leg of this UEFA Cup tie in Edinburgh two weeks ago.

And he mischievously added: "As I said before, we were keeping our best players in reserve for this second leg."

For his part, Hibs boss Mowbray is likely to view Kucherevskiy's pre-match boasts as little more than mind games, the Easter Road club having kept a close eye on the players the Ukrainian side have fielded since visiting Scotland.

Close scrutiny of the starting line-ups for their matches against Metalurg Donetsk and Chernomorets show that the only real change in the interim has been the reintroduction of Ukrainian midfielder Sergey Nazarenko, who was suspended for the first leg.

Suspension will also rob Dnipro of the services of Ruslan Kostyshin, the striker having picked up a second yellow card in the competition for an injury-time foul on Kevin Thomson after coming on as a substitute at Easter Road.

And Kucherevskiy himself confirmed that influential midfielder Aleksandr Rykun, identified as one of Dnipro's top players by Mowbray during his spying trip, will be again missing through injury.

Dnipro's results since playing in Scotland have been fairly impressive, a 1-0 win over Metalurg and a 0-0 draw away to Chernomorets, both teams who sit well ahead of Kucherevskiy's side's 12th place in the Vysha League.

But the fact remains that his team have scored just two goals in their last five matches.

And, when one Ukrainian journalist asked the veteran coach how he intended to counter a Hibs side which has, as Mowbray had pointed out, scored three goals away to both Rangers and Motherwell in recent weeks, Kucherevskiy said: "Both sides need to score a victory, that means breaking through the opposition's defence and our tactics will reflect that task.

"We have three strikers to choose from and I will make a decision on which I feel will do a good job for us."

With Belarus striker Sergey Kornilenko virtually certain to start, Konstantin Balabanov would appear to be the favourite to join him in a two-pronged attack but Kucherevskiy added: "Aleksandr Melashchenko has been playing with confidence and he could well figure."

We've kept best players in reserve - Dnipro chief