Duarte formulating a plan to stop Messi, Neymar and Suarez

Ruben Duarte hopes Espanyol can do what few have done before them and stop Barcelona’s forward line of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.

The South American trio will make the short hop across the Catalan city this weekend for the first of three derbies in less than two weeks, with Saturday’s league fixture followed by a two-legged Copa del Rey tie.

Left-back Duarte is expected to be included in the Espanyol back-line tasked with keeping them quiet at Cornella-El Prat.

“We will think [about it] and try to formulate a plan to stop the three of the best players in the world, who right now are in great form,” he told.

“We hope to take something from the game because it’s an important game for us.

“It’s a derby and for us it’s a really attractive fixture [to play in].

“We are not thinking about the cup [games] at all because we need points to climb up the table and we will be going for this game.

“I hope that the fans and the city of Barcelona can enjoy it - and that we can get a positive result from the match.”

Duarte is one of the most promising full-backs in Spain at the moment having become a regular for both his club and his country’s U21 side.

As an academy graduate at the Barcelona-based club, he knows a thing or two about the Catalan derby and believes now is the perfect time for the Pericos to end their Barca hoodoo - they haven’t beat their neighbours in the league since 2007.

“We’ve spent years trying to beat them,” the 20-year-old continued.

“It’s clear they’re going through a great spell of form, as of today they’re the best team in the world, but they won’t beat us for attitude or motivation.

“Hopefully we can get the three points - or at least one!”

Espanyol have improved since Constantin Galca took over as manager following the dismissal of Sergio Gonzalez a few weeks ago, but they were beaten on Wednesday at Sevilla - the Romanian’s first loss since taking charge.

However, Duarte was happy with parts of that defeat, despite the result.

“We knew that Sevilla would be a strong, powerful rival, especially at the Sanchez Pizjuan,” he said.

“It was difficult with the ground full and they took the lead after a couple of mistakes from ourselves.

“But now we are thinking of Saturday’s game, we can’t think [about Sevilla] too much - we had the ball, played our game and had good chances, but it didn’t quite happen.”