Guardiola's Barcelona or Zidane's Madrid: Picking one from these two legendary teams

Defence

Barcelona

Carles Puyol is a Barca legend

Guardiola brought back Gerard Pique from Manchester United to pair him with Carles Puyol at the heart of the defence with Dani Alves and Eric Abidal on the right and left, respectively. It was perhaps Barcelona’s greatest ever backline as Puyol no-nonsense approach perfectly complemented Pique’s ball-playing abilities and Eric Abidal’s composed nature was the proper partner to Dani Alves’ attacking ventures.

Puyol’s astute defensive abilities are, however, what truly kept that defence together along with Sergio Busquets’ intelligence. The fact that ever since Puyol’s departure, Barcelona have found it hard to exude an unbreakable vibe that they did with him is a testament to how important he was to the team.

Gerard Pique, meanwhile, was brilliant under Guardiola but was a little inconsistent towards the end of his tenure. Eric Abidal was a safe-guard from the left who also played a good role while attacking. And Dani Alves was the best right-back in the world during the Pep era.

Real Madrid

Ramos might go on to become Real's most successful captain ever

The current backline of the Blancos is perhaps the best unit in the world. Their right-back, Dani Carvajal, is arguably the best in his position while Marcelo is undoubtedly the best left-back there is. Sergio Ramos might have his moments of madness, but he turns up big time whenever needed and has actually improved a lot and seems more stable under the watchful eye of Zinedine Zidane.

The other defender is Raphael Varane. In Zidane’s first year, Pepe was the obvious first-choice. Despite being seen in a negative light by the football fraternity, the Portuguese was Real’s best and most consistent defender.

Varane, however, took over by the end of last season and is one of the indispensable players in the team at the moment. The potential of the Frenchman could make him one of the greatest defenders ever, but he has to get over the lapses in concentration against the smaller teams.

While comparing these two teams’ defences, they are as close as it gets, but Madrid’s defence could be judged as slightly better in terms of individual quality, but Barca’s peak back line was better as a team.