The Swansea City manager will take charge of his team against local rivals Cardiff City at the Liberty tomorrow having played in what is classed as some of the biggest derbies in the world.
And despite that he does not believe that this particular fixture is any less significant even if some would certainly describe it as less glamorous.
He told the Evening Post “Each derby is different because of different cultures and different styles
“But this is not a smaller derby than the others I have been involved in because we are in the Championship.
“The importance is just the same.
“When you play a derby, all the fans and all the city expect.
“When you win they feel proud — they can talk about the victory every day until the next derby comes around.
“We want to give that pride to our fans tomorrow.
“We want to make sure they can talk with enthusiasm and happiness about football with their friends and with their opponents.
“I played for Benfica against Sporting Lisbon and I played for Sporting Lisbon against Benfica,” he recalled.
“I won and I lost.
“I played for Juventus against Torino and normally I won, and for Panathinaikos against Olympiakos I won or drew.
“I won and I lost for Inter Milan against AC Milan.
“At Borussia Dortmund there are a lot of teams in a small area so we had different results, and for Espanyol against Barcelona — well, that was a difficult one!
“I hope my players don’t feel any pressure — it’s Cardiff who need to feel pressure because for some time they have been looking for promotion from this division,” Sousa added.
“They have invested for that — they have the money to buy any player they want.
“They have a manager who, in my opinion, is one of the best in the Championship and they are in third place in the table with more goals than anyone. These are important facts.
“They are favourites at the beginning of the game, but that doesn’t mean anything to us,” Sousa said. “We believe in ourselves and we are in a good moment of form.”
