Madrid slumped nine points adrift of their arch-rivals after losing 4-3 at home to Sevilla last night and to make matters worse for the champions they are set to be without the suspended Arjen Robben and Marcelo for the trip to Barca, who have won 11 of their last 12 league games and are unbeaten since the opening day of the season.

Robben, who was arguably Madrid's star performer against Sevilla on his return from injury, was sent off late on while Marcelo's first-half booking also rules him out.

With the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Pepe, Gabriel Heinze, Mahamadou Diarra and Ruben de la Red also likely to be out, few are giving Madrid much hope of overturning Barca next weekend - including, it seems, Schuster.

He said following the Sevilla defeat: "That game (against Barcelona) concerns me less than any other game. Right now it's not possible to win at the Nou Camp, Barcelona are in great form and demolishing teams, and I think this is going to be their year.

"We could play a good game there, but anything more than that I cannot say."

Madrid's defeat to Sevilla was their third league reverse in their lost four games and left the Spanish giants in fifth place in the standings.

The champions were booed off by their own fans at half-time as they trailed 3-1, but those jeers turned to cheers as Madrid staged a superb second-half fightback that saw them level the scores up at 3-3 and also hit the woodwork twice.

The 77th-minute dismissal of Robben was a massive blow to Madrid though, and within seven minutes of going a man down they conceded what turned out to be the winning goal when Renato Dirnei headed home Frederic Kanoute's cross.

"The good image we gave in the second half is not enough," added Schuster. "Games are played over 90 minutes. We did many good things and others not so well.

"At least we came close to winning the game. We showed a lot of character, but it was not to be."