Jesus Navas warned Manchester City that Sevilla are hungry to leave their mark in the Champions League ahead of Wednesday’s reunion with his former club.
Navas swapped the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for the Etihad Stadium ahead of the 2013-14 season, leaving the side he won consecutive Uefa Cups – the precursor to the modern Europa League – with.
Sevilla followed those triumphs with two more Europa League titles in 2014 and 2015, with last season’s glory lifting them into the Champions League this season.
And Navas is refusing to underestimate the threat from his boyhood club despite the Andalusians’ poor start to their La Liga campaign, and is certain his old side’s Europa League pedigree will give them extra hunger to establish themselves in Europe’s premier club competition.
“I am very happy, seeing them grow year on year, keep doing well and now enjoying the Champions League -where they’ll get to know themselves better,” the 29-year-old winger told
Omnisport .
“It pleases me a lot. I watch their matches on television.”
“The truth is that it’s not easy to win the Europa League and, as I say, now it’s another step for them and they will want to do something important.”
Sevilla and City are on three points apiece in Group D, having each beaten Borussia Monchengladbach and lost to group leaders Juventus in their European outings so far.
Despite winning two Premier League titles in the past four seasons and leading the way in England so far this term, Manuel Pellegrini’s men have failed to progress further than the last 16 in the Champions League –coming up some way short against Barcelona over the past two seasons.
Navas was reluctant to talk up City as potential Champions League winners, but feels the squad boasts the quality to make an impression in the latter stages of the competition.
He added: “We have to go step by step, calmly, but as I say there’s a great team that can fight for that [the Champions League].”
The Etihad outfit reinforced heavily over the summer by adding the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Nicolas Otamendi to the side.
Source: Goal
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