Barcelona vs Espanyol; Spanish La Liga
Barcelona vs Espanyol. Spanish La Liga.
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Barcelona v Espanyol preview: Barca goalkeeper Claudio Bravo unlikely to be fit
Sunday 8 May 2016 15:58, UK
With just two rounds of matches left, Barcelona need two wins to hold off Champions League finalists Atletico and Real Madrid to successfully defend their title.
Luis Enrique's Catalans welcome cross-town rivals Espanyol to the Camp Nou on Sunday, having scored 16 goals in their last three outings without conceding.
All the games kick off at the same time, with Real hosting Valencia as they look to continue their incredible run of form. Ten consecutive wins have dragged Los Blancos back into the title race and they sit just a point behind the top two.
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Atletico are level on points with Barca at the summit, but trail them on head-to-head record. Diego Simeone's side travel to already-relegated Levante.
Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo is likely to be missing after injuring his right calf in the 2-0 win at Real Betis last weekend.
The Chile international was replaced by Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 88th minute of the victory at the Estadio Benito Villamarin which kept Barca top of the table.
The Catalans rediscovered their winning touch in order to maintain their title push, and they responded with 8-0 and 6-0 thrashings of Deportivo La Coruna and Sporting Gijon before their important win at Betis.
Espanyol head into the clash in confident form having recorded an upset victory over Europa League finalists Sevilla last weekend that has brought them to within a single point of guaranteeing their top flight status for next season.
But they travel to the Camp Nou without top scorer Felipe Caicedo following a recurrence of his Achilles injury.
They will also be without defensive stalwarts Alvaro Gonzalez and Oscar Duarte, who are both serving one-game bans after seeing their fifth yellow cards against Sevilla.
Barcelona will be intent on avoiding history repeating itself with many fans still haunted by Raul Tamudo's 89th minute equaliser which wrecked their title bid in 2006/07.
Just as they will do on Saturday, Espanyol visited the Nou Camp in the penultimate weekend.
Barca were on course to go into the final game of the season on top after taking a 2-1 lead. But Tamudo struck what is now infamously known as the 'Tamudazo', handing the title to Real Madrid.
"They'll want to win, but so do we," said defender Jordi Alba. "We are at home and we're not approaching this game scared about a 'Tamudazo'. We'll have our fans behind us and we'll be really up for it, and I'm certain we'll deliver in the game."
Another slip up against Espanyol, who held Barca to a goalless draw in back in January, could prove costly.
