El Clasico guard of honour - Zidane to break tradition

Barcelona's 4-2 win at Deportivo La Coruna last weekend confirmed the long-foreseen news that they are Spanish champions and, according to tradition, are due to be welcomed on to the pitch in their next league game by a guard of honour - or pasillo. Fittingly, next up is El Clasico at Camp Nou.

While Deportivo's decision to give Barca a pasillo - for their Copa del Rey triumph - was seen as a mark of respect and awe, for Real Madrid it would likely be perceived the ultimate ignominy. After all, there is a fine line between showing respect and being humiliated, and for some that line runs right through a guard of honour.

Given Zinedine Zidane's recent comments, Madrid forming a one looks unlikely, yet it has still been the hot topic ahead of Sunday's clash, which has strangely little riding on it this time around.

Yet, for all of Madrid's antipathy, Zidane's side would be far from the first team to form a guard of honour in El Clasico and they even received such a privilege in May 2008.

FROM A PASILLO TO A PASTING

The emotions of the two coaches that night could not have been more different. Rijkaard slowly ambled out and took his position, hands together behind his back, before the Barca players jogged out and formed two lines either side of the halfway line, the cameras of the Bernabeu crowd flashing incessantly and gleefully.

Meanwhile, Bernd Schuster watched on as his Madrid side triumphantly walked through that red-and-blue-walled corridor, twenty years after being a part of the last guard of honour Barca organised in El Clasico, wearing a Blaugrana jersey.

Captain Raul led Madrid on to the Santiago Bernabeu turf, shaking hands - like the majority of his team-mates - with Rijkaard, before going over specially to Xavi and Puyol, followed closely like an easily-influenced puppy by Sergio Ramos.

Some, such as Pepe, Fernando Gago and Wesley Sneijder, walked straight down the middle, seemingly preserving the thoughts of a true rivalry by refusing to thank their counterparts for the degrading act of a Clasico guard of honour.

But looking back, the guard of honour was the least embarrassing part of the whole night for Barca. What started with a pasillo ended in a pasting, as the visitors remained on level terms from just 12 minutes - Raul rifling Madrid into an early lead.

Arjen Robben headed in soon after, before second-half goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Ruud van Nistelrooy wrapped up a convincing win, with Thierry Henry's late effort a mere consolation. Madrid won 4-1, but it was a scoreline that flattered Barca.