One of the hottest topics heading into the latest edition of El Clasico is the guard of honor. With Barcelona winning the league last weekend, it is a sign of respect usually shown for the champion in their following game, but Real Madrid’s refusal to do so has been the talk of the town.
Zidane has insisted that his side will not follow this custom as the Blaugrana broke tradition in their meeting in December when they failed to do the pasillo for the then newly-crowned Club World Cup champion. The Catalan giant’s reasoning was that they had not participated in that competition, but the Frenchman has now called that excuse a “lie”.
With this topic being rehashed ahead of Sunday’s clash, the Blancos boss told reporters (as per Marca): "I'm not the one who decides, after the Club World Cup I understand that it wasn't important for them to do a guard of honor.
"Some say that they weren't in the competition but it's a lie, you have to win the Champions League to play in the Club World Cup and we are all in the Champions League.
"I'm not the one who decides that I don't want to give a guard of honor, they didn't do one.
"With respect, we won't do it because they didn't do it.
"What's most important is that we respect what Barcelona have done, winning the league is the most beautiful and difficult thing for me.
"But that happened and it's my problem, not the club's, if they had given us a guard of honor I wouldn't have broken with anything that was done before."
There has been speculation of a special guard of honor for Andres Iniesta, the iconic midfielder loved across Spain who is set to leave Camp Nou at the end of the season. This appears unlikely to happen if Zidane’s pre-match words were anything to go by, but the Real Madrid tactician revealed that his side will give their respect to the maestro in his final Clasico.
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