Espanyol v Real preview: Benitez expects Los Blancos to cope without James in Catalonia

Real Madrid travel to Espanyol on Saturday afternoon looking to stay in touch with those teams at the top of the La Liga standings.

Rafael Benitez's side are unbeaten so far this season, although having been surprisingly held to a goalless draw at newly promoted Sporting Gijon in their opening match of the campaign, Real already find themselves two points behind both champions Barcelona and city rivals Atletico Madrid at the top of the table.

The visitors will have taken great confidence, though, from their last league performance, a 5-0 victory against Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabeu in which midfielder James Rodriguez scored twice.

However, the Colombia international will be missing at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat this weekend after tearing a muscle in his left thigh while playing for his country in a friendly against Peru in midweek.

Meanwhile, Real will also be without new right-back Danilo, with the Brazilian having been sidelined for a month after picking up a foot injury, although they will be able to call upon the services of both Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in attack.

Benitez, who is likely to deploy Spain midfielder Isco and his international team-mate Dani Carvajal in place of James and Danilo respectively, was philosophical about the duo's injuries, telling Madrid's official website: "We know that events with international squads sometimes involve these types of problems.

"Having so many international players adds a greater risk. The news is a little annoying because these are two players that took part the other day and played really well.

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"Now they will miss several games and we have to get a good performance out of the excellent available squad in order to minimise the effect of the injuries."

Either way, Real will still be expected to collect all three points against an Espanyol side who opened their La Liga campaign with a 1-0 win against Getafe, before losing 3-1 to Villarreal last time out, and who they have not lost to in eight years.