Man City could face bizarre Real Madrid anger after Pep Guardiola quizzed

Pep Guardiola wasn't the only one surprised in his press conference before the match when a Spanish journalist asked the manager, 'as a football traditionalist' if his team would give Real Madrid a guard of honour on Wednesday night. The Manchester City manager tried to brush off the question but was asked again in a strange exchange:

So you won't do one?What?A guard of honour, because Real won the leagueUs?YesThat's a question for UEFA.

The matter wasn't over, for another journalist then asked again if City would give Real a guard of honour. A bewildered Guardiola replied that he has already congratulated them on winning La Liga, but this is an entirely separate competition. So what on earth was all of it about?

Well, a storm is raging in Madrid because Atletico have refused to give Real a guard of honour when the teams meet at the weekend, with a club statement saying that they "will under no circumstances collaborate in this attempt at ridicule in which the true values of sport are completely forgotten and tension and confrontation between fans are incited".

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Needless to say this has not gone down well with their neighbours, and while it really shouldn't have anything to do with City, the fact that Guardiola is loathed in Madrid could be used to pour extra oil on the Bernabeu bonfire on a night that could come down to fine margins.

Kyle Walker could recover in time to face Real Madrid, but the last time Guardiola rushed a player back John Stones limped out of the first game with Real and hasn't been seen since. That makes it more likely that one of Nathan Ake and Oleksandr Zinchenko will be used at left-back, and both bring very different