of La Liga by overcoming Sevilla on Saturday.
A Barcelona side without the injured Lionel Messi head to face
Sevilla at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on
Saturday, desperate to move back to the summit of La Liga.
The Spanish champions sit a point behind surprise early pace-
setters Villarreal after six fixtures this season.
Luis Enrique's side suffered a significant blow in their quest to
retain the title last week as Messi was ruled out for up to two
months with a knee injury.
Barca responded to the absence of their talisman in midweek,
coming from behind to overcome Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in
Tuesday's Champions League clash.
The victory, though, belied a difficult evening for the hosts, who
were subjected to booing from the demanding Camp
Nou faithful after Kyriakos Papadopoulos gave the German side
an early lead.
And those displays of dissatisfaction certainly irked Luis
Enrique.
"The team deserves more credit," he told TV3 after seeing late
goals from Sergi Roberto and Luis Suarez earn Barca the spoils.
"You should support the team before, not only when it's going
well."
This is perhaps an ideal time, then, for Barca to head to ground
where they have not tasted defeat in the league since
March 2007.
They will make the journey this time with considerably depleted
ranks, however.
As well as being without Messi, Barca are likely to be unable to
call upon midfield maestro Andres Iniesta after he was
withdrawn due to a hamstring complaint in midweek.
The club have not revealed his prognosis as yet, although some
reports are suggesting he could be missing for a month.
Thomas Vermaelen and Rafinha remain sidelined with calf and
cruciate knee ligament injuries respectively.
The good news, however, is that Claudio Bravo is fit following a
calf problem and expected to replace Marc-Andre ter Stegen in
goal.
Should he reclaim his place, Bravo will be tasked with keeping
out a Sevilla side smarting from a poor start to the campaign.
The Europa League holders have managed just one win in their
first six league outings, although that came last time out when
Yevhen Konoplyanka's late goal secured a 3-2 success over
Rayo Vallecano.
Any momentum gleaned from that win was undermined on
Wednesday as Sevilla slipped to a 2-0 Champions League loss
to Juventus.
However, they will have Vitolo and Fernando Llorente back in
their ranks. The duo missed last Saturday’s win over Rayo and
were rested against Juve to ensure full fitness for Barca's trip.
The last meeting between the sides was a nine-goal thriller, with
the now-departed Pedro grabbing the decisive extra-time goal in
Barca's 5-4 UEFA Super Cup victory in August.
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