Barcelona will miss some of its key players in the crucial clash with Stuttgart on Tuesday in Group E of the Champions League.

Striker Samuel Eto, Gianluca Zambrotta and Yaya Toure will see the match from the bench or from the stands as they are all suffering from torn or pulled muscles. The last two won’t see any action for at least a month.  

Eric Abidal and Rafa Marquez will go with the team to Stuttgart but are both doubtful, giving coach Rijkaard, who celebrated his 45th birthday on Sunday, some problems in the defense.  

"The only thing that has put a shadow over my birthday," he told the digital version of Sport, "has been these injuries."

He did receive some good news as well. Barcelona’s Captain Carlos Puyol finished his recovery and will play at Stuttgart after warming up against Levante in the team’s latest “La Liga” match.

Brazilian striker Ronaldinho will also resume playing after he missed several matches due to injury, although some say his nightlife was the unofficial reason. However, with Lionel Messi’s latest display of soccer excellence and Thierry Henry's hat trick in Saturday's 4-1 win over Levante, Ronaldinho’s presence as a must is doubtful.

Stuttgart's striker Mario Gomez said that the German side doesn’t fear the Catalans, although playing Barca was one of his boyhood dreams. Gomez, whose father is Spanish and a Real Madrid fan, praised Barcelona’s style of play, underlining that they always played the “most attractive soccer”.

"We can compete with any team at his level and will certainly not go into the game not believing in our chances," he said.

If they’ll be able to compete against the lately unstoppable Catalans it’s a matter of “wait and see”. Germany’s raining champions are coming off a 2-1 loss at Hansa Rostock which left them 10 points behind current leader Bayern Munich.

"We have real problems," Coach Armin Veh said. "We are conceding too many goals."

If Veh and his boys don’t fix their problem of conceding too many goals, they’re in big trouble as Barcelona has a “problem” of its own: it scores too many.

In the other Group game, Olympique Lyon hosts Glasgow Rangers.