Luis Enrique believes Gary Neville's Valencia are "one of the best teams in La Liga" after they held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Neville was in the stands at the Mestalla to watch his new side come from behind to claim a point thanks to Santi Mina's late equaliser.
The former Manchester United and England defender officially takes charge on Sunday and Enrique thinks he will have taken plenty of positives from the display against Barcelona.
"After seeing them I think they are one of the best teams in the league, on an individual level and a team one," Enrique added.
"I was not surprised at how good they were today."
The Primera Division leaders missed a host of chances in a one-sided first half, but still looked set to take all three points when Luis Suarez scored just before the hour mark.
But five minutes from time Mina tucked away Paco Alcacer's pass to snatch an unlikely point for the hosts.
"I have no complaints about the team, we put in a complete performance at a very tough ground," said Enrique.
"Valencia were very good in defence and they made the most of the great piece of play by Alcacer and the great finish from Mina.
"We had the better chances, but we were not able to finish them off. We did not have too many problems with them on the counter, our football brought us reward for all the effort we put in.
"We have quality players and they know just how difficult it is to score goals. We tried to close it out but we could not do it.
"We lacked the ability to finish that we normally have. I am happy with the ambition and the attitude from my team in the game."
Valencia caretaker boss Voro thinks the confidence gained from the point will help Neville's job of turning the club's season around in the coming weeks.
"We played the game we had to," he said. "We've managed to get a point and, above all, taken the first step to recovering our confidence."