The last thing Real Madrid wanted was another Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich not least since they will need to get the better of a familiar foe who appears to have their number.
Pep Guardiola, who takes Bayern into the first leg at Santiago Bernabeu tonight, was appointed coach of the German champions at the end of last season after taking a year out to recover from a trophy-laden but draining four years in charge of Real's arch-rivals Barcelona.
His coaching record against Real was an impressive nine wins, four draws and two defeats, while as a player in 14 league meetings he won six, drew five and lost only three.
"Every time I have gone to the Bernabeu, as a player and as a coach, I have never in my head gone there as the favourite," Guardiola said.
"I have too much respect for them. Madrid deserve a lot of respect for all their history. They are always a strong team because they have a lot behind them: great players, fans and a great history."
Guardiola conceded that his players had gone off the boil in the Bundesliga since winning the title last month. Real, fresh from beating Barca in Wednesday's Copa del Rey final and still in the fight for the league, may have an edge.
"Yes Madrid have a certain advantage in that respect," admitted Guardiola.
"Madrid's enthusiasm will be greater than ours right now after winning the cup final but we will try to be competitive at the Bernabeu."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article