Espanyol - Almeria preview - Garcia: Let's focus on the league

Espanyol captain Sergio Garcia has urged his team-mates to put their Copa del Rey exploits out of their minds ahead of this weekend's Primera Division clash with Almeria.

The Catalan club look well placed for a semi-final spot in the cup competition after beating Sevilla 3-1 on Thursday, their third successive victory in all competitions.

They will be seeking to continue their momentum at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat on Sunday against a side who are third bottom and have lost their last three.

Yet the teams are only separated by seven points, and Garcia has warned Espanyol not to lose focus.

"We know that people are happy but the match against Almeria is important," the forward said on the club's official website.

"It is a team that is close to us and we want to take away the victory. We must press forward and try to get three important points."

Garcia hopes they can use their success in the cup as a springboard to push further up the table.

"The team has fallen short of what we want," he added. "We cannot afford to relax. This is the time to get good results."

Almeria revealed top-scorer Tomer Hemed and Ximo Navarro suffered minor knocks in training this week but both should be available for the trip to Espanyol.

They will be keeping their fingers crossed, with goalkeeper Ruben and midfielder Quique injured, and Jonathan Zongo and Thievy Bifouma unavailable due to African Nations Cup duty.

The absent quartet weakens an already paper-thin squad, but defender Angel Trujillo is keen to come away from Barcelona with something.

"Each point will be vital for us," he said in quotes on his club's website. "We now have 16 and we have to get the maximum possible from now to try to reach the end out of the relegation zone.

"We believe we can achieve the objective and we will fight for it because although we are in decline, the (points) differences (with their relegation rivals) are minimal."