Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has branded Champions League opponents Real Madrid a "political club".

Pellegrini spoke of his time at Real with El Mundo.

"When you are in charge at Real Madrid, you have to be able to accept that it is not just a sporting club, it's also very political.

"And also to what extent you are willing to allow people who, in my opinion, do not have sufficient knowledge of football interfere... If a coach lets somebody who has no understanding of the game interfere, or allows themselves to be weakened by the criticism which originates from the political side, the sporting side or even for personal reasons, then I don't think that person is suitable for the job.

"That's why I feel I was lucky enough to have passed one of the toughest challenges I have come up against without letting it affect me at all.

"I always knew that what the players appreciated most about me was that when we turned up for work on Monday morning, nothing had changed - whether we had won or lost - the work was the same, the concepts were the same, independently of what was being said on the outside. I never fielded a player to please someone else - or because they had been criticized by someone else. Madrid have a model which is not going to change."