The French club have only qualified once for the knockout stages of the competition – in 2012/13, when they lost 36-14 at ASM Clermont Auvergne.

However, Garbajosa, who has joined Montpellier from La Rochelle, stressed: “I think the aim right now for MHR [Montpellier Hérault Rugby] is, at the very least, to get through to the quarter-finals.

“We know that we’re in a high-level pool with Connacht [Rugby], Gloucester [Rugby] and Toulouse, and that Toulouse are used to this competition.

“But we’ll try to handle this competition well. The first few games will be important. We’ll also bring in our players who went with their respective countries to the World Cup, so there’ll be some squad management. But the aims are clear: we’re going to try to get through to the quarter-finals.”

Garbajosa won the trophy as a centre for Toulouse in 2003 and then guided La Rochelle to the quarter-finals in their debut Champions Cup campaign in 2017/18 as head coach.

“They’re two different adventures,” he commented. “As a player, you’re a participant completely; as a manager, you’re simply a spectator.

“You try to prepare the players well, or as best as possible, for an aim — which is, of course, to win, but also to go as far as possible, to play in the knockout stages and to win a trophy, which is something we failed to do at La Rochelle.”

A French team hasn’t won the European Cup since RC Toulon in 2015, with Racing 92 (twice) and Clermont falling at the final hurdle.

The 42-year-old commented: “I think we need to be as consistent as possible. In the European Cup especially we need to give ourselves every chance of scraping any little point we can, whether that be away or at home. The games are of a high intensity.

“You need to be able to carry that load; you need to be level-headed, disciplined, very efficient and then, once we’re past the group stage, if I may say so, and we’re lucky enough to get through, there are still three games to go.

“We know that those three games will be very, very intense. It’s always difficult to change objective, because you’re still in the TOP 14 when you play the semi-finals or the final of the Challenge Cup or the Heineken Champions Cup. You need to be able to handle it well and that’s why there’s some important squad management to be had.”

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Xavier Garbajosa has set Montpellier a minimum target of the quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup in his first season as their head coach.