Barça have an injury crisis on their hands ahead of Saturday's Barcelona derby with Espanyol.

Thierry Henry, Sylvinho, Deco, Eto'o, Edmílson, Oleguer, Giovani and Thuram are all on the sidelines and manager Frank Rijkaard has been forced to look to Barcelona B for replacements.

Marc Crosas, 19, Alberto Botía, 18 and Víctor Sánchez, 20, are all called up from Pep Guardiola's B team squad.

For Botía and Sánchez, this is will come as a surprise and they were never originally expected to join the first team squad for league matches this season. For Marc Crosas, a B team listed first team player, this could prove to be the perfect breakthrough he has needed in his bid to win a permanent first team place.

Everything to win for
For Espanyol, the second club in Barcelona, this will be the perfect opportunity for them to take away Barça's mantle as the best placed Catalan side in the Spanish top flight as a victory for Los Perikos will mean they will leapfrog Barça in the league.

And there is a good chance of that happening. Espanyol have already beaten champions Real Madrid 2-1 at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys and have brushed aside Sevilla and Valencia, the other two sides who finished in the top four of the Primera Divisíon last season, 2-3 and 1-2 away from home respectably.

That, coupled with Barça atrocious away form, which has seen them only win once away from the Camp Nou in the league this season, and the injuries means Barça face a tough task trying to win 3 points.

Espanyol have the upper hand
In this fixture last season, Espanyol picked up their first ever win against Barça since 2001 when they thrashed Barça 3-1 thanks to goals from Raúl Tamudo, Luis Garcia and ex-Barça man Francisco Rufete.

But that wasn't all, in the return match at the Camp Nou at the end of last season, Raúl Tamudo scored a last minute equaliser which effectively handed Real Madrid the league title with another matchday left in the league programme.

Squads

FC Barcelona: Valdés, Jorquera, Márquez, Xavi, Ezquerro, Iniesta, Puyol, Bojan, Milito, Messi, Ronaldinho, Abidal, Zambrotta, Gudjohnsen, Touré Yaya, Botía, Víctor Sánchez and Marc Crosas

RCD Espanyol: Kameni, Chica, Lacruz, Clemente, Valdo, Zabaleta, Luis García, Riera, Lafuente, Ángel, Moha, Torrejón, Coro, Jarque, Moisés, Tamudo, Jonathan Soriano and Lola.