Barcelona will not rotate against Espanyol... Luis Enrique will play his A-team

Today Barcelona will finish their terrible run of fixtures, with the Catalan derby against Espanyol away from home. After drawing with Sevilla and beating PSG twice, and Valencia, Sergio Gonzalez's side present the final obsticle for Barcelona, ahead of games against Getafe and Cordoba. 

Those two fixtures will allow the team to take a rest, with only the game against Atletico Madrid in the Vicente Calderon presenting much difficulty, on paper. Particularly if the Rojiblancos haven't sewn up third place by then, and progress to the Champions League next season. 

So Luis Enrique will play all the big guns today, to try and take three poitns from the Power8 stadium. He will not make rotations, save for Claudio Bravo back in for Marc-Andre ter Stegen. THe rest of the 11 will be totally recognisable, more or less his A-team. That said, the Asturian detests that expression and doesn't give it validity. 

We're expecting a defence of Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Alba, while in midfield Rakitic, Busquets and Iniesta support Messi, Suare and Neymar. 

It would be surprising, in any case, if Enrique picked a different starting line up. Above all, taking into account the fact he can rotate next week, resting players ahead of the Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich.

The first leg is around the corner, on May 6, after Getafe at home on April 28 and Cordoba away on May 2. 

These two games, in theory, are perfect to play some of Mathieu, Bartra, Xavi, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha, Adriano and Pedro, to allow the team to arrive as fresh as possible for the final hurdles. 

For now, the dressing room is pleased with the work of Enrique on this front, as he's shown his rotations have helped the team to keep going in three competitions and have a real possibility to win the treble. 

Espanyol, for their part, will have a difficult problem in midfield because Victor Sanchez, formerly of Barcelona, is suspended, so they may have to use Canas and Abraham, or Javi Lopez, as part of a double pivot. In principle, they will line up in a 4-4-2, with Sergio Garcia and Felipe Caicedo leading the line. 

The objective is to tighten up and pressure the Blaugrana, like they did in the first half at Camp Nou.