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Zidane Explains Why Real Madrid Won't Give Barcelona A Guard Of Honour

Zidane Explains Why Real Madrid Won't Give Barcelona A Guard Of Honour

Barca have already won La Liga ahead of the Clasico. It all seems very petty from Zidane and his team.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

El Clasico is never far away from drama, needle and a bit of pettiness and Sunday's match is no different with Real Madrid refusing to give Barcelona a guard of honour despite the Catalan giants winning La Liga.

This season Real Madrid were expected to run away with the title. They won it last season, and their second Champions League in a row, whilst Barca had lost Neymar to PSG. The Supercopa win for Los Blancos seemed to confirm the theory.

Now though Barca stand on the verge of making La Liga history. They've already sewn up the title with four games to go and could become the first team to go a whole league season unbeaten in Spain's top flight.

First though they must get past their fierce rivals Real at the Camp Nou, having already beaten them 3-0 at the Bernabeu. And with the title already secured thoughts moved to the embarrassing moment for Real they'd have to give a guard of honour.

Well it seems that won't be the case and Zidane explained that it's because Barca refused to give Real one, saying:

"After the Club World Cup they didn't want to do it for us. They might have said they didn't do it because they weren't in the competition, but that's not true. You've got to win the Champions League to play in it and we're both in the Champions League.

"It's not up to me to decide about the guard of honour but they didn't do it. We, with respect, won't do it for them because they didn't.

"We respect what Barca have done in winning the league, which for me is the most difficult and nicest thing you can do. But these things happen; if they'd have given us one, we weren't going to break the tradition of doing so."

Real Madrid with their World Club Cup. Image: PA Images
Real Madrid with their World Club Cup. Image: PA Images

It seems extremely petty from the Frenchman and his side and one can't help but think that giving the World Club Cup winners a guard of honour has never been a thing before.

It has become a tradition to give champions who win their league before the end of the season a guard of honour at any subsequent matches they play in but the World Club Cup wasn't the same competition.

Of course it's unlikely that Barca will care too much and it might just give them extra motivation for the match.

No guard of honour will ever beat the time Manchester United had won the Premier League ahead of a game against Chelsea. Sir Alex Ferguson fielded a ridiculous weak side leading to Chelsea clapping on Tomasz Kuszczak, Keiran Lee, Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Gabriel Heinze, Chris Eagles, Alan Smith, Darren Fletcher, Kieron Richardson, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Dong Fangzhuo who had all barely featured.

One of the funniest moments in Premier League history. Image: PA Images
One of the funniest moments in Premier League history. Image: PA Images
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Topics: El Classico, Football News, Football, El Clasico, Barcelona, Zinedine Zidane, Clasico, Spain, Real Madrid, La Liga