Swans preparing to face 'one of best teams' - Matos
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Vitor Matos reckons Swansea City must topple one of the Championship's "best football teams" if they are to continue their upturn in form at Stoke City on Saturday (12:30 GMT).
Swansea have partially eased concerns that they could face a long battle against relegation this season after back-to-back home victories over fellow strugglers Oxford and Portsmouth.
But Matos' team face a sterner challenge as they take on a Stoke side eyeing a return to the Premier League.
"Stoke is a brilliant team, for me one of the best teams of the league in terms of the way they play," Swansea head coach Matos said.
"They defend really well - they want to press, they have a clear idea how to do it. They attack really well, [with] different ways of attacking, sometimes with three, with [Aaron] Cresswell deep, sometimes using [Eric] Bocat in a different way, so they have a lot of variability.
"It's a team that can create different kind of problems with different players as well, and so we'll need to be on our maximum concentration and perform to compete.
"That's what we're going to try and it will not be for sure an easy place to go but we are really looking forward because it will be a brilliant game for us as well."
For all Matos' admiration of Stoke, Mark Robins' team will be looking to end their own slump in form when they face Swansea.
Having spent much of the season in and around the Championship's automatic promotion places, the Potters slipped to eighth having suffered a fifth defeat in their past six matches at Ipswich Town on Wednesday.
But Matos insists former Coventry City boss Robins has the experience to turn Stoke's form around.
"[He is] a manager that is really experienced here and in this league, so for sure he knows how to get them out of the situation," he added.
"When you have these moments, every game that comes is an opportunity to get out of it, so I think that's how they will see it.
"It's up to us to have a proper football game to compete and to show as well that we are here for a reason."
