Pep Guardiola went to war with his former club Barcelona on Wednesday as Manchester City’s manager defended his current employers in the wake of their European ban.

Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu has “thanked” Uefa for banning City from the Champions League and Europa League for two years, a shock sentence handed out on Friday which the Premier League champions plan to appeal.

The Catalan club, where Guardiola remains a legend, have problems of their own after being accused of hiring a social media company to attempt to damage the reputations of figures such as the City boss and their own striker Lionel Messi.