Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane says his side will not offer La Liga winners Barcelona a guard of honour because they did not do the same after Real’s World Club Cup triumph earlier this season.
Ernesto Valverde’s men, who are still unbeaten in the Spanish top flight, were crowned champions last week ahead of Sunday’s clash at the Santiago Bernabeu, live on Sky Sports Football.
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Barcelona defender Jordi Alba has suggested they should be given a guard of honour – known as a ‘pasillo’ in Spain – before the game.
However, Zidane has rejected that request, reiterating his team will not uphold the tradition because Barcelona failed to offer them the same courtesy in the first Clasico of the season in December, shortly after Real had won the Club World Cup.
“I am not the one who decides if there is a pasillo,” Zidane said. “We must explain the situation – after the Club World Cup I understand it was not important for them to do it.
“Some say it is as they were not in the competition, but that is not true. You have to win the Champions League to get to the Club World Cup, and we are all in that.
“So they did not do it. We respect what Barca have done, to win La Liga is the most difficult, I have always said that. I congratulate them.
“If they had done the pasillo… I am not breaking any tradition, but neither will I do something that they did not do.”
Madrid go into the game 15 points adrift of the champions and four points behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, with a game in hand over their local rivals.
When asked about fitness doubts over Raphael Varane and Isco, Zidane said he would decide his team on Sunday, with the Champions League final against Liverpool to come on May 26.
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“We will see how we are going to play,” he continued. “It is a game with three points on the line, where the table will not change, but for us it is a game we have to play well and do everything possible to win.
“On those players, if anyone feels a problem they will not play. We have many players to come in for those missing, and that is the most important thing. Tomorrow we will travel, then we will see if there is any change.”
“I am not going to think about [the Champions League final], as if I did we would not even play tomorrow.
“We must play as we always do, try everything to win. The only thing is that if a player is not at 100 per cent, he will not play, but the others will.”
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