Barcelona: Barcelona boss Luis Enrique warned Neymar to keep his emotions in check when he returns from suspension in the heated atmosphere of a Catalan derby at Espanyol on Saturday.

The Brazilian has missed Barca’s previous three league games, including a thrilling 3-2 win at Real Madrid last weekend, due to suspension after being sent-off and then sarcastically applauding the officials when Barca slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Malaga on April 8.

It was Neymar’s first red card for the club, but Enrique is wary of the fact he will be a target as Espanyol try to derail their city rivals’ title chances.

“He is a specialist in putting up with these type of situations because if there is a player used to being fouled and, above all, fouled with force, it is Neymar,” said Enrique on Friday.

“He has been sent-off very few times in his career.

“He is a player that controls his emotions well, but without doubt tomorrow is a game in which controlling your emotions will be vital and necessary.”

Victory at the Bernabeu last weekend brought Barca back into the title race.

However, with both Real and Barca locked on 78 points, it is Madrid who retain the upper hand as they have a game in hand with five games remaining to Barca’s four.

“At this stage of the season every game is vital. At the Bernabeu it was because it was against a direct rival and not winning would have practically finished the title race.

“Now for the number of games left we need to win every game.”

Neymar is expected to replace Paco Alcacer in Barca’s only change from the side that started El Clasico last weekend.

However, that depends on Andres Iniesta overcoming a groin problem to start as the Spanish international didn’t train on Friday and is a doubt.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, meanwhile, waded into politics again and called Friday on his countrymen to do their “utmost to avoid” voting far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen into office.

Le Pen, leader of the National Front party, was voted into the second round of French elections at the weekend and is now engaged in a fierce run-off with her globalist rival and centrist frontrunner Emmanuel Macron.

“The message is always the same, it’s that of 2002,” Zidane told reporters, referring to the year when then far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen — the current candidate’s father — reached the second round of France’s presidential elections.

That prompted many voters from the left and right to unite behind Jacques Chirac, the conservative rival in that runoff vote, to block Jean-Marie Le Pen from gaining power.

“I’m far from all those ideas, of the National Front,” Zidane, whose parents immigrated to France from Algeria, said during a press conference before Real Madrid plays Valencia on Saturday.

He added that people had to do their “utmost to avoid this. Extremes are never good,” without giving any specific voting indications.

Zidane had taken a similar stance in 2002, participating in a video against the far-right candidate with several other celebrities like actor Gerard Depardieu and musician Jean-Jacques Goldman.

Jean-Marie Le Pen had then countered that Zidane was being “manipulated by people who are using his fame.”

— AFP