{"id":26315,"date":"2026-03-16T21:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T21:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:00:23","slug":"josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Josep Guardiola gives his players a day off before facing Real Madrid in the Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ue-c-article--first-letter-highlighted\"><span class=\"capital-letter\">I<\/span>In an unprecedented move ahead of the second leg of the Champions League last-16, Guardiola canceled Manchester City&#8217;s training sessions to give his players a day off and prioritize their preparation for the match against Real Madrid. The England team trained at their facilities on Sunday, but there was no sign of the pre-match training session, which usually includes a 15-minute press release.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola had already put this measure into practice in the lead-up to November&#8217;s game against Borussia Dortmund, and the Citizens&#8217; 4-1 win against Real Madrid, which forced extra time, confirmed the tactic. However, this is not usually the case with Champions League teams.<\/p>\n<p>England teams typically train at their own facilities, both home and away, but are generally given up on working at match venues. However, it is impressive that he did not train the day before the match. It&#8217;s not a common practice in the Champions League or in leagues.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Guardiola will be accompanied by captain Bernardo Silva to hold an official pre-match press conference. Real Madrid will travel to the Etihad in the afternoon for an official press conference and pre-match training session.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/manchester-city\/2026\/03\/16\/69b7f5d046163f5d628b45b0.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IIn an unprecedented move ahead of the second leg of the Champions League last-16, Guardiola canceled Manchester City&#8217;s training sessions to give his players a day off and prioritize their preparation for the match against Real Madrid. The England team trained at their facilities on Sunday, but there was no sign of the pre-match training<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Josep Guardiola gives his players a day off before facing Real Madrid in the Champions League - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Josep Guardiola gives his players a day off before facing Real Madrid in the Champions League - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IIn an unprecedented move ahead of the second leg of the Champions League last-16, Guardiola canceled Manchester City&#8217;s training sessions to give his players a day off and prioritize their preparation for the match against Real Madrid. The England team trained at their facilities on Sunday, but there was no sign of the pre-match training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-16T21:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/\",\"name\":\"Josep Guardiola gives his players a day off before facing Real Madrid in the Champions League - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17736687611828.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-16T21:00:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17736687611828.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17736687611828.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/josep-guardiola-gives-his-players-a-day-off-before-facing-real-madrid-in-the-champions-league\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Josep Guardiola gives his players a day off before facing Real Madrid in the Champions League\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. 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