With two games against Liverpool and two games against Atletico Madrid in the space of 12 days Aymeric Laporte knows Manchester City's season will be on the line after the international break, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
'It's a nice challenge, but more than that, it's an opportunity,' he says at Spain's training camp just outside Madrid. 'We look at it as the chance to show that we are better than these other teams.'
There is no false modesty to Laporte. When he is asked if there is anything Liverpool have that he wished City possessed, or vice-versa, he begins: 'I think the football that we play, no-one else plays it in the world.