Return of awesome threesome lifts Barca's spirit.



A big boost has come to the FC Barcelona squad today as they face Almeria at Camp Nou, with three key players returning from injury. The players are Rafa Marquez, Toure Yaya and Gianluca Zambrotta. Màrquez has quickened his recovery period to 25 days after suffering a soleus muscle injury in his right leg he suffered during the first few minutes of the Stuttgart-Barça game in the Champions League. Touré injured his femoral biceps in his left leg near the end of the Levante-Barça match four weeks ago, while Zambrotta was the second player after Samuel Eto’o to suffer a muscular injury. On the 26th of September, the Italian got a right leg calf injury in the 20th minute of the 4-1 victory over Zaragoza, which has kept him out of the team for 32 days.


Márquez and Zambrotta have missed three league games through injury, and Touré didn’t play in the Barça-Atlético Madrid clash or last Saturday’s fixture in the Madrigal stadium. Despite this, Touré is number eight in the list of those who have played most match minutes, Zambrotta tenth and Márquez thirteenth.


The inclusion of the three in the squad meant the exclusion of Lilian Thuram, Marc Crosas and Santi Ezquerro from the squad to face Almeria today in the La Liga match. The complete squad as named by coach Frank Rijkaard include:


Valdés, Jorquera, Sylvinho, Abidal, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Oleguer, Touré Yaya, Iniesta, Xavi, Márquez, Ronaldinho, Giovani, Messi, Gudjohnsen, Bojan and Henry.


The match against Almeria on 28 October starts at 19:00 hours ( GMT + 1 ). The venue is Camp Nou.