Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says they'll be wary of Sevilla's European know-how this week.
City meet Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraes, Greece on Wednesday night.
“I know (Sevilla coach Jose Luis) Mendilibar from my time at Barcelona," he said. “He turned things around at Sevilla in no time.
“They had a tough final against Roma; matches against [Jose] Mourinho are always challenging and difficult. I know that from personal experience.
“When you see a Mendilibar team play, you can recognise his influence, you can immediately tell it's his team: they get forward quickly, they make quick use of the wings, they put in a lot of crosses, they get into the box well, they are aggressive and are immediately on it. In fact, under him, they eliminated Man United and [beat] Roma in the final.
“He produced some great performances in the knockout stage. Just as we say Real Madrid are [usually] the favourites to win the Champions League, Sevilla are the favourites in the Europa League.
“I tip my hat off for what this club has done in this competition – it's incredible. They know how to perform in European competitions, and it will be a good [UEFA Super Cup] final."
Guardiola also said: "When we arrived seven years ago, people said that we had to win [titles] at Manchester City – probably because of my past [success] at other teams – but I didn't have that feeling," the boss added.
“After winning four or five Premier Leagues, everybody started to say that if we didn't win the Champions League, it wouldn't be a complete success.
“We could accept that reality, but that was because of the previous five Premier League titles we had won. We had reached a final where we didn't really perform, then reached a couple of semi-finals.
“We could feel that we were really close. However, we always spoke about it: it wasn't about reaching this final and then not showing up.
“The most important thing is that we have been there or thereabouts for a long time, and when you consistently get there over a long period, you'll win eventually."
