The league will be put to one side tonight as Barça return to the Kings Cup. It will be no easy task for Barça as Villarreal have won four of the last five matches between the two clubs.

A warning

Barça lost the last meeting between the two clubs 3-1, conceding two goals in the opening ten minutes. And a 2-0 defeat last season did much to deflate Barça’s chances of lifting their third consecutive league title. As Frank Rijkaard told reporters at the pre-match press conference: “We’ve been warned”.

Edmílson returns

Rijkaard has named a squad of 18 players, two of whom are carrying slight injury problems. Edmílson has been cleared for action at the last minute but Abidal (left foot) Ronaldinho, Ezquerro and Jorquera are all unavailable due to injury while Eto’o and Touré Yaya are still away at the African Cup of Nations.

Tonight’s starting line-up is hard to predict given the usual rotation of players between league and Cup matches. Rijkaard has given no indication as to whether José Manuel Pinto will replace Valdés in goal and it seems unlikely that Messi will be fit enough to play the full 90 minutes. However, both Oleguer and Edmílson may well return to the team after overcoming their respective injury problems.

Villarreal, who have never reached the semi-finals of the Kings Cup, welcome back Matías Fernández, Tomasson and Josico but continue without ‘Guille’ Franco and Fabricio Fuentes due to injury. However, they are on a good run of form at the moment with comfortable wins against Deportivo and Valencia as well as an epic Cup win against Recreativo. They’ll be relying on forwards Nihat and Rossi to maintain the momentum tonight against Barça, not forgetting the upcoming league clash with Real Madrid at the weekend.