Unai Emery is confident that Spartak Moscow can shock Barcelona to keep alive their Champions League hopes.
Spartak will again be without the injured Aiden McGeady while Barca welcome back Carlos Puyol after missing both matches against Celtic after dislocating his elbow in the away match with Benfica.
Spartak coach Emery knows Barca inside out from his time at Valencia and is looking forward to taking on the Catalans again.
“The fact that we are playing Barcelona means it will be a difficult game,” the Spartak coach admitted. “However, we have reason for optimism because we are also a strong team and have won two of our last three games.
“We will try to take any opportunities that we have and play our own game. Our goal is to get three points because we want to be playing in Europe in spring.
“In recent times we have gone through a bad spell with injuries piling up but we have to deal with this. We still have a pre-match training session ahead of us and our starting lineup will not be so bad but we know we will be without Artem Dzyuba and Aiden McGeady.
Emery’s opposite number Barca coach Tito Vilanova said: “I know Unai Emery for his work with Valencia– his teams attack and defend well. We have not come up against each other very often, so there could be some surprises.
“Russian teams are now buying good, expensive players from around the world, and they have done a lot of good work in youth development. Playing in Russia is difficult, because there are very good players and coaches here, and the weather is different too.
“However, for now the weather is good, and we have played in cold conditions recently– if you want to win the Champions League, you have to be able to beat any opponent.
“We will have to play well. I, of course, expect maximum commitment from all the players. Maybe if we had beaten Celtic we would have left some players at home, but this is a very important match. We need to play well and win to finish top of the group. We have not qualified yet. This is a tough group, so it is no easy task.”
Barcelona came from 2-1 down to beat Spartak at home in the opening group match.
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