Pep Guardiola said he did not want to spend a single second discussing the idea that Atletico do not play good football.
Diego Simeone has built a ferocious team in his image in Madrid, although their style has found them few admirers outside of the club. Guardiola's sides at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now City, on the other hand, are seen as making the most of the so-called beautiful game.
A battle between the two master technicians in the quarter-final of the Champions League has been pitched as a clash of two different footballing principles. However, Guardiola was keen to downplay the contrast between the two teams as he dismissed the debate.
He said: "I'm not going to talk one second about these stupid debates. Everyone tries to win the game and if they win they will be right and if I win they will be right. In one style there are many things for the quality of the players so the difference will be there but honestly, not one second."
The City boss also laughed at the suggestion that his team would be happy to win ugly, pointing to them timewasting in their win at Old Trafford against United as evidence that there is no ugly way to win.
"What is playing ugly?" he said. "My team won in Old Trafford 1-0 and Bernardo Silva spent five minutes in the corner - that is not ugly. It's defending the position. I'm here to talk about what we try to do, I never judge the opponents. What they do, what we have to do to win."
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