Alex Goode reckons unbeaten Saracens will only get better in Heineken Champions Cup

The teams also met at the same stage on Glasgow’s only previous visit to the knockout stages, when Saracens brushed Gregor Townsend’s team aside on their way to defending their title and Goode was also involved in that encounter, but he believes Saturday’s visitors to Allianz Park could provide a sterner test this time.

“They are a top side, they’ve been doing well in the league, they’ve got a lot of internationals, a couple of guys are coming back for them; dangerous, dangerous players,” he said, referring to the expected returns of Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour.

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“(They’re a) dangerous team and they are well coached, so there is no doubt that they’ll want to come and spoil what we’re doing.

“The pack certainly is run well by Jonny Gray, he does a great job for them and obviously works very hard. Ali Price has taken up the mantle of being more of an organiser without having Finn Russell there. (Adam) Hastings has come in and done a great job in that sense…it’s something that we've seen before and we’ve prepared for a while and we have got to make sure we don't give them too much time and space and allow them to have everything their own way.

“We’ve played quarter-finals before and we got one over on them obviously in the pool games, so they’ll have a point to prove and they’ll want to come and leave those games behind them and just go for it.”

Saracens looked far from unbeatable on their home turf last weekend as they edged past fellow Londoners Harlequins in the English Premiership, but in recovering from an 11 point deficit they showed they have not forgotten how to grind out victories, even in the absence of powerful England forwards Maro Itoje and George Kruis, as well as their international captain Owen Farrell.

Goode meanwhile suggested that they believe there is much better to come in Europe than they have demonstrated so far, albeit their best form in the competition so far was produced on Glasgow’s previous visit at the end of the pool stages.

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“We haven't had it all our own way and I think we weren’t great, but I think that two key games were away at Glasgow where we had to really fight hard and we put in a top performance defensively and then away at Cardiff as well, we had to find a way of winning and we were down to 14 men,” he observed.

“We weren’t in a good place, the weather was horrendous and they were coming after us physically and we just managed to show real composure and control to come through that at the end and show what we were about.

“They were a big test for us and then we played Glasgow again and we were in a good place at the end and we really wanted to take it to them and that's why this game coming up is going to be so fierce and a really tough contest. All the games we’ve had against them have been very hard.”

They are consequently preparing themselves for another battle, the down-side of which from a Glasgow perspective, is that Saturday’s hosts have far more experience of contesting and winning matches at this stage of the competition, having reached this stage in each of the last seven years.

“When you get two competitive sides, two physical sides, there’s always going to be that and that's what Test match rugby and European knockout games are always going to be about,” said Goode.

“It's going to be right on the edge, we have to be at our physical best and they’ll want to do the same and that's rugby. It gets a bit feisty at times, but that doesn't deter from the fact that you know you’ve got to be clear in your mind, make good decisions and play good rugby.”