Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola will not lose faith in his team following a dip in form in their last three games.

Barca struggled to beat Almeria at home before the international break, had to be content with a goalless draw at Valencia in their last league match and then suffered their first defeat of the season as they went down 2-1 at home to Russian champions Rubin Kazan in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Despite those results, the Catalans remain in good shape in Europe and still lead the Primera Liga by a point from bitter rivals Real Madrid.

And Guardiola is remaining upbeat after the club's first defeat in 13 competitive games this term.

"There are always lots of opinions after a defeat, but that will not make me lose faith in the team, because I can see how they compete," he said today.

The Barca coach wants his players to put Tuesday's loss behind them and focus on beating Real Zaragoza tomorrow evening.

"What we have to do now is focus on how we play the next game and see what we can improve on in that match so that we can win it," he said.

Guardiola is wary of Zaragoza and believes Marcelino Garcia Toral's side play in a similar way to Rubin.

"Zaragoza use a similar system to Rubin, but I don't know if they will defend very deeply - their defensive behaviour is very similar," he said.

But the coach, who lead Barca to the treble last season, claims he will be happy if his side can repeat the performance they produced against the Russians.

"We will have to see if we are capable of creating 13 or 14 goalscoring chances like we did in the Champions League, which was not bad at all," he said.

Away from the pitch, Barcelona have been boosted by the news captain Carles Puyol has signed a new contract to remain at the club until 2013.

"That has been the best news from the last few hours," Guardiola said.

Dani Alves, Thierry Henry and Gabriel Milito are all out for Barcelona, but Guardiola has an otherwise fully-fit squad for the game against Zaragoza.

Zaragoza have made an average start to life back in the top flight.

Garcia Toral's side have taken eight points from their seven matches since promotion in the summer, but were left frustrated last weekend after throwing away a two-goal lead in the last 10 minutes at home to Racing Santander.

Garcia Toral was furious after that match and admits beating Barcelona at the Nou Camp will be a tall order for his side.

"Winning there is the most difficult thing that exists in football at the moment," he said.

"Barcelona are the best team in the world and a long way ahead of the second best team."

Marko Babic and Javier Borque return for Zaragoza, but Diogo, Ivan Obradovic and Braulio all miss out through injury.