World Cup-winning manager Marcello Lippi has praised Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola ahead of this evening's Club World Cup semi-final.

Lippi's Guangzhou Evergrande side were drawn against Bayern in the competition after the Chinese team beat Al-Ahly in the quarter-finals, and the former Juventus coach admits that he is impressed by his opposite number's career so far.

"Guardiola is an intelligent and capable person. We've seen what he's done with Barcelona and Bayern, he's changed teams but kept on winning. He's brought with him his philosophy of play, slowly but with sureness," the Bangkok Post quotes Lippi as saying.

"We're going to play against one of the best teams in the world. When you play a match against a team like this, out of 100 matches you lose 99 but you can win one and I hope that will be the next one. You never know."

Lippi won five Serie A titles and a Champions League over two spells at Juventus before guiding Italy to World Cup glory in 2006.