Espanyol Barcelona

Espanyol led the Primera Liga after winning two and tying the third in the opening three rounds of the championship, but has since lost two games in a row. The defeat at Sevilla last Wednesday was deserved, but Bartolome Marquez's side felt hard done by after going down to a controversial late penalty scored by Lionel Messi in last weekend's Catalan derby against Barcelona at Montjuic. Espanyol had taken the lead in that match and led for most of the match, playing all of the second half with 10 men after Nene was sent off. The Barcelona-based side now travels to champion Real Madrid on Sunday, but Nene is available after his second yellow card was rescinded this week. Ivan De La Pena and David Garcia look set to feature after returning from injury. Gregory Beranger could also return, but Rufete, Javi Ruiz, Marc Torrejon, Jesus Mari Lacruz, Valdo and Steve Finnan all look set to miss out through injury.