The best football, at home

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Barça want to keep up high level expected at Camp Nou that is synonymous with victory and a great show: 4 wins and 12 goals. The return of Touré Yaya will give the Barça midfield a more physical profile.

After 21 days, football returns to Camp Nou. And this season, that means good football and an effectice attack. So far, Camp Nou is where the local team has scored most league goals (12) and where they have won every game (4 out of 4). Not forgetting that the two other games held there have also ended with goals and a great show: 5-0 against Inter and 3-0 against Olympique Lyon. In order to keep up the good run, Rijkaard’s men will have to overcome Almeria, recently promoted and 9th in the league with 11 points, who have only lost one of their four away games.

The mission

Barça haven’t lost sight of the top spot. Despite absences, injuries and the recent 3-1 defeat at the hands of Villarreal, they are only two points adrift of the leaders. Becoming league leaders is Barça’s main mission for the next few outings, against theoretically weaker rivals (Valladolid, Betis and Getafe) before the next break in the league. This same goal has been reached in Europe, where FC Barcelona is joint leader of their group along with Glasgow Rangers, who they drew 0-0 with last Tuesday.

New faces
Different to at Ibrox Park, Rijkaard can count on Zambrotta, Touré Yaya and Márquez, who were all given the ok on Saturday, for the game against UD Almeria. This should make up for the absence of Deco, who was injured near the end of the Villarreal game. With the Ivory Coast player available again, the Dutch coast can go back to playing with a stronger midfield, combining Touré Yaya with the talent and vision of Xavi and Iniesta. To make space for these three, Ezquerro, Marc Crosas and French player Thuram, who all played in Glasgow, have been dropped from the match squad.

Messi, OK

Also back in the match squad is leading goal-scorer Messi, who has been following a special training programme this last week due to the high number of minutes he has played. Since going off injured in Pamplona, the Argentinean has played in every game for Argentina and Barça. That’s 10 games in 40 days, with a lot of travelling in between. Barça’s youngest ever league goal-scorer Bojan Krkic will also be looking forward to being on the bench. After entering the record books with his goal in the Madrigal stadium last weekend, Krkic will to looking to get his first goal before his home fans, which would make it a fantastic week for him. The setting is ideal.