Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino has labelled Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone "one of the best in the world" ahead of their International Champions Cup (ICC) clash.
The two Argentine managers are currently preparing their sides before the two meet on Friday in Melbourne.
During his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Pochettino was told he was similar to Simeone and was clearly proud to be compared to his former international team-mate.
"I consider him one of the best managers in the world," Pochettino said. "He deserves all the credit because obviously it's difficult to take a team like Atletico Madrid and play finals - the Champions League final - and won the league in Spain," Pochettino said.
The match against Atleti will be Tottenham's second ICC fixture after they lost 2-1 to Juventus on Tuesday.
Pochettino emphasised the importance of playing against teams that have qualified for recent Champions League finals ahead of Spurs' return to Europe's premier club competition this season.
The La Liga side have lost two of the past three Champions League finals, while Juve went down 3-1 in the European Cup decider of 2015.
"It's very good to play this type of game with teams that are consistently in the Champions League and are the bigger teams in the world because they can show their quality, their personality and we can take a lot of things from these games," Pochettino added.
- Goal