Barcelona are ‘starting from scratch’

BARCELONA director of football Andoni Zubizarreta is confident the club’s players will not be distracted by thoughts of this weekend’s “El Clasico” when they face Benfica in the Champions League tonight.

Barca’s thrilling 3-2 win over Sevilla on Saturday maintained their 100 per cent start to the new Primera Division campaign. Victory over Real Madrid at the Nou Camp on Sunday will see Tito Vilanova’s men open an 11-point gap over their arch-rivals, but Zubizarreta insisted that the Champions League was the only focus for the time being.

He said: “We have to focus on the Champions League. Then on Wednesday we can think about the league again.”

Barcelona’s win over Sevilla was their sixth on the bounce in La Liga, while they kicked of their Champions League campaign with a victory at home to Spartak Moscow.

But Zubizarreta insisted: “Winning steaks are built game by game. The results have been very good, but on Tuesday we are starting from scratch again. ”

Midfielder Thiago Alcantara has been ruled out for up to eight weeks with knee ligament damage. His absence has been tempered by the return of Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Adriano, all of whom have been named in Vilanova’s travelling party but remain doubtful.

Benfica also head into the match boasting the leadership in their domestic league after an unbeaten start to the season. Jorge Jesus’ side have won three and drawn two of their Liga outings so far and kicked off their Champions League campaign with a goalless draw at Celtic.