Espanyol vs Athletic Bilbao
Espanyol
Athletic Bilbao
vs
Saturday 30th January 2010
Venue: Estadi Cornella-El Prat
Kick-off: 17:00
Score: 1 - 0
Defensive duo back for Espanyol
Espanyol will be boosted by the return of centre-backs Nico Pareja and Facundo Roncaglia for the visit of Athletic Bilbao.
The Barcelona-based side have lost six of their last nine Primera Division games and could only draw at home to Mallorca last weekend.
And the Catalans, now very much in a relegation battle, were forced to field a patched-up central defensive partnership in that match.
Pareja, Roncaglia and Juan Forlin were all missing, leaving the club with few options last weekend.
In the end, coach Mauricio Pochettino, a fine centre-back for Espanyol and Argentina in his day, opted to move holding midfielder Moises Hurtado back into the centre of defence.
Moises gave an accomplished performance alongside youngster Victor Ruiz and Mallorca needed a highly contentious late penalty to get back into the game, having failed to penetrate an inexperienced back-line all afternoon.
Moises picked up an injury, however, and will be sidelined for several weeks.
But Pareja and Roncaglia are both available again after suspension and the two Argentinians will start together in central defence against Athletic.
Forlin, Shunsuke Nakamura and Ivan De La Pena all miss out through injury, though.
Goalkeeper Carlos Kameni is available again after returning from the African Nations Cup, but the Cameroonian has been left out of this match.
That means a third consecutive start for Argentinian keeper Cristian Alvarez.
Espanyol are now just three points above the relegation zone and Pochettino admits his side need to win.
"We need to win to get ourselves into a more comfortable situation," he said.
But the Argentinian coach expects Athletic to be tough opponents.
"They are a team with a lot of potential, they press you hard and they are strong in the air - we will have to play with patience when we have the ball and press high up the pitch," he said.
Espanyol were denied three vital points by a harsh refereeing decision last weekend, but Pochettino says he has faith in the officials.
"I trust the referees and I hope he goes unnoticed in this match - I have no reason to question anything," he said.
Athletic, meanwhile, have 10 points more than Espanyol following a positive first half of the campaign.
The Basques currently lie in eighth place, but coach Joaquin Caparros says the second half of the season is time to start over again.
"We all start from zero in the second part of the season," he said.
Athletic are still in the Europa League and face a congested calendar in the coming weeks.
But Caparros says he is only thinking about Espanyol at the moment.
"Our only objective at the moment is to play a magnificent game against Espanyol - what's the point in talking about Europe if we don't go out there with the right attitude and ambition?" he said.
Aitor Ocio and Xabi Etxeita are sidelined, while Mikel San Jose is suspended.
With those three missing, Caparros has called up youth team player Mikel Santamaria.
