Keita keen to defeat former coach Ramos

Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita is confident he will be the one celebrating when he comes up against former coach Juande Ramos in this weekend's showdown with Real Madrid.

Ramos was yesterday unveiled as the new Madrid coach following the departure of Bernd Schuster, and he will take charge of his first match tonight when Zenit St Petersburg visit the Bernabeu in the Champions League.

This weekend's mouthwatering clash against Barca is the match attracting all the attention though, when stuttering Madrid will try to avoid falling 12 points adrift of the red-hot Primera Liga leaders.

A sub-plot to the game is the fact Ramos will be coming up against two of his former players from his days at Sevilla, with Keita and Dani Alves now plying their trade at Barcelona.

Keita, who moved to Sevilla from Lens just a few months before Ramos quit the Andalusian club to join Spurs in October 2007, said: ‘Juande Ramos is a very good manager but we expect to win. The game against Madrid is very important for the team.’

Barca coach Pep Guardiola, who saw a much-changed side suffer their first defeat since August against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League last night, is not letting all the upheaval and problems at Madrid affect his thinking ahead of Saturday's clash.

Madrid have lost six of their last 12 competitive matches, have seven senior players sidelined with injury and two more suspended for the trip to Nou Camp, and they also now have a change of coach to add to the uncertainty.

However, Guardiola assured: ‘Madrid are always a dangerous opponent.’

The Barca boss, who is fairly new to his position as well having only replaced Frank Rijkaard this summer, refused to make any personal assessment of Madrid's decision to replace Schuster with Ramos.

‘It is Real Madrid's decision. There is little I can say about it. It's not worth judging if it's correct or not,’ he said.

‘With the new coach come new things. We will watch their game against Zenit and also we will review videos of when he was in charge at Sevilla.

‘It will be a tough game, and our only objective is to win it.’

Barca president Joan Laporta added: ‘The team cannot afford to relax or get over-confident, we have to show that we can win. Madrid will come here hurt, in circumstances that are not the best.

‘For this reason we have to be prudent and be very focused. If we win we'll put them 12 points behind us.’