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As Madrid, Man City seasons hinge on Champions League, Guardiola, Zidane put mutual admiration aside

The marker for the pre-match atmosphere ahead of Real Madrid hosting Manchester City on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu was set last week. When Atletico Madrid's fans mobbed their team ahead of Liverpool's visit to the Wanda Metropolitano, spewing out love and desire for victory amid a vast cloud of red smoke from many dozens of incandescent flares, you can bet that Madrid's fans were taking note and promising: "We'll do it better next week!"

Ordinarily, the atmosphere before Los Blancos play at their ancestral home is genteel. The Bernabeu is in a well-to-do area of Spain's capital; the bars, cafes and restaurants are quite posh and the stadium becomes temporary home to an amazing mix of families, often three generations watching together, well-heeled, cigar-smoking fans, many thousands of tourists .