City and the Spanish giants met during the League Phase this season, with the Premier League champions winning at the Bernabéu, and also faced each other in last year's play-off round.

Next month's last-16 clashes will mark the 10th and 11th meetings between the clubs across the past five seasons. Real have similarly encountered Benfica twice this term, playing them in the final round of League Phase fixtures and again in the play-offs.

The competition's new 36-team structure has been designed to increase variety, yet Guardiola believes it would benefit from adjustments to prevent sides meeting the same opponent twice before the latter stages.

"Why not? Today is different. When I started it was eight, nine, 10 teams, they want to increase a lot with the schedule and calendar. It is a question of adapting. Madrid draw is a Madrid draw, what can we do?" said Guardiola.

"It is a little bit weird. Not many times does it happen that the last game of the group stage - Real Madrid v Benfica - is the first draw. It looks different. People will agree or disagree but it is different."

Despite most European heavyweights being placed on City's side of the draw - including Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain - Guardiola rejected suggestions his team have been handed a tougher route to the final than Arsenal.

Arsenal will face Bayer Leverkusen, with a potential quarter-final against either Bodø/Glimt or Sporting Lisbon. Bodø/Glimt notably beat City 3–1 in the League Phase. While Barcelona and Atletico Madrid loom as major threats, Guardiola insisted it would be wrong to label Arsenal's path to Budapest as easy.

"Would be so disrespectful, for example Newcastle, Barcelona, top teams, Atletico Madrid or Spurs. I saw Atalanta against Dortmund for a while, and they played quite similar to Gasperini before. So I'm not a fan of that (saying it's easier half of draw)," added Guardiola.

"Now for everybody, Bodo/Glimt is top, right? Bodo/Glimt now is, 'oh my god what a team.' Before we played, you already saw and all the fans, 20 games of Bodo/Glimt before, to analyse that team and know it.

"So, Champions League is so difficult. I'm not saying Madrid is not difficult, everybody knows it, but the rest of the teams that you play, I don't know, you can name me any team.

"All of them, they have the trick. If you want to go through in this competition right now, you have to win the best teams otherwise you don't deserve it."

Mason Mount and Raphael Varane return to training for Manchester United