Manchester City winger Jesus Navas is delighted by Sevilla's progress ahead of Wednesday's Champions League reunion with his former club.
Navas swapped the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for the Etihad Stadium ahead of the 2013-14 season, having twice won the Europa League under its former guise of the UEFA Cup.
Sevilla followed those triumphs with two more in 2014 and 2015 – last season's glory lifting them into the Champions League this time around.
"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," Navas told Omnisport.
"It pleases me a lot. I watch their matches on television."
Sevilla and City have three points a piece, having beaten Borussia Monchengladbach and lost to Juventus in their Group D outings so far.
Navas believes that their established Europa League pedigree will give Sevilla extra hunger to establish themselves in Europe's premier competition.
"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," he said.
Despite winning two Premier League titles in the past four seasons and leading the way in England so far this term, City 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 Manuel Pellegrini's 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]."
