This is South Wales --MICHAEL Laudrup believes Swansea City have the quality to match old club Getafe's spectacular run to the last eight of the Europa League.
Swansea's Continental adventure kicks off tonight when they take on Malmo at the Liberty in the Europa League third qualifying round first leg.
Laudrup has warned Swansea to take nothing for granted against the Swedish heavyweights, who annihilated Scottish Premier League side Hibernian in the previous round.
But the Dane believes that if Swansea are anywhere close to their best, they have the class to come through.
And he has told Ashley Williams and Co they are good enough to write a chapter of European history this season by going all the way to the latter stages of the competition.
Laudrup's unfancied Getafe side surprised everyone back in 2007-08, when they reached the quarter-finals of what was then the Uefa Cup and were unlucky not to make the last four as they lost out to Bayern Munich on away goals.
"Even five years on, if you speak to any of the Getafe players who were involved, they will remember that run," Laudrup said.
"It was a fantastic experience for them — they had never done anything like it before — and I hope we will be able to have a similar experience here at Swansea, for the players and for the fans.
"At Getafe we started off playing Twente (Enschede) in the play-off and we got through that.
"Then we played against Anderlecht and Hapoel Tel-Aviv (as well as Spurs and Aalborg) and we got through the group.
"Then we got past AEK Athens and Benfica — we won both games against them — and we went to play at the Allianz Arena.
"The players were amazed just looking at the stadium, but we drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich and then went out because we drew 3-3 at home.
"We can do that with Swansea. If you look at our squad, I think we have a team who can disturb a lot of teams in Europe — even some big clubs in big leagues.
"But in a competition like this you also have to be careful.
"If you have one bad night you can be out, so first we have to concentrate on Malmo."
Laudrup has confirmed that Williams will start tonight — which could boost Swansea's chances of keeping the Wales captain.
Arsenal have long been linked with a move for Williams, and Laudrup admits he cannot be sure the central defender will still be around come the end of the transfer window.
But Arsenal may be put off slightly once Williams has played in the Europa League, for he would then be ineligible for their Champions League qualifier later this month.
Laudrup has insisted again that there have been no bids for Williams — and says he will not consider any if they are tabled at the tail-end of August.
"I hope Ashley stays and plays all the games with us," Laudrup stressed.
"I hope there are no offers for him, and I will not accept someone coming in for him in the last 48 or 72 hours of the window saying they would like to buy him and they have spoken to the player because if that happened, we would have no time to find a replacement." Reported by This is 2 hours ago.