The José Zorrilla stadium plays host to a Valladolid-Barça game which is vital to both teams. Barça need to win to stay in sight of Real Madrid after their impressive 1-5 victory over Valencia last night, and Valladolid are desperate for points having slipped to second from bottom in the league.

Barça are without Eric Abidal and Thierry Henry for the match as well as Deco, Eto’o and Edmilson, so Frank Rijkaard will have to reorganize in defence and attack. In defence he may opt to play Sylvinho in place of Abidal and leave the other positions unchanged from those who started against Almeria. Another possibility would be to put Carles Puyol at right back and switch Zambrotta to the left, this would give Rafa Marquez, or possibly Thuram, the chance to partner Gabi Milito in the centre.

In attack there are three options to replace Henry. The most likely would be to play Bojan Krkic as centre forward with Messi on the right and Ronaldinho on the left. However, Rijkaard may decide to give Giovani dos Santos another start which would mean Ronaldinho would play as a ‘false’ centre forward with Giovani on the left. The third option would see Eidur Gudjohnsen reverting to the centre forward position after his good performances in midfield.

Newly promoted Valladolid started the season well with a 0-1 win over Espanyol, but have failed to win since. They are now second from bottom with only six points and have yet to win a game at home, though they did give Madrid a hard game and probably deserved more than a 1-1 draw. Coach José Luis Mendilibar has not found a settled starting eleven, only five players were in the starting line-up of the last two matches. There is a particular problem with the goalkeeping position where both Ludovic Butelle and Alberto Lopez have made mistakes when they played. In attack any two from Victor, Llorente, Kome and Ogbeche could play, though Barça supporters will be most worried by the prospect of Victor who has scored seven goals against Barça in 16 games.

The last time the teams met at the José Zorrilla was back in April 2004 in Rijkaard’s first season. Barça won the game 1-3 with goals from Saviola, Ronaldinho and Andres Iniesta, this was Iniesta’s first ever league goal. Ronaldinho was sent off in the game after receiving two yellow cards, the second an absurd one for not retreating ten yards for a free kick.

Barça have taken the following 18 players for the game: Valdés, Jorquera, Zambrotta, Oleguer, Thuram, Puyol, Marquez, Milito, Sylvinho, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Bojan, Giovani, Ezquerro, Ronaldinho.

Possible starting XI: Valdés; Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Sylvinho; Xavi, Toure, Iniesta; Messi, Bojan, Ronaldinho.

My Prediction: Valladolid 1 Barça 3 (feel free to send your own prediction)