hot favorite to win its second Club World Cup in three years, knows the 20,000-kilometer round trip to Japan and back could come at a heavy cost. Locked in a tooth-and-nail battle with Real Madrid in La Liga, Barca faces its bitter rivals in next weekend's ‘Clasico' before immediately jetting off to the Far East. The European champion joins the Dec. 8-18 Club World Cup at the semifinal stage along with Brazil's Santos, winner of South America's Libertadores Cup. Japan's Kashiwa Reysol, which won its first J-League title at the weekend, takes on Auckland City in the opening game of the seven-team FIFA competition Thursday. But Barcelona's collection of big-name players, led by Argentina's Lionel Messi, will be expected to lift the trophy – even if it turns out to be fool's gold. Real Madrid leads Barca by three points at the top of La Liga, with a game in hand over Pep Guardiola's side heading into a potentially bruising encounter at the Bernabeu this Saturday. A side boasting Spanish World Cup winners Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Cesc Fabregas should still have enough in the tank to win in Japan. “We'll need to adapt quickly,” Fabregas told fifa.com. “It will be a long journey with time zone complications involved and we go into a tough game with very little time to prepare.” Barcelona, which beat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley in May to win its fourth European Cup, faces either Qatar's Al-Sadd or Tunisian club Esperance on Dec. 15 in Yokohama. The long-haul flight and quick turnaround after returning could take its toll on the Spaniards. “This is Barcelona,” added Fabregas. “We're obliged to win every game. It's what people expect. That makes it mandatory for us and we have to deliver.” Santos, which captured its third Libertadores Cup in June, almost 50 years after Pele inspired it to back-to-back titles in 1962 and 1963, could prove formidable opponents. Esperance will relish the long trip after a year of political turmoil and a revolution in Tunisia. The African champion faces Al-Sadd, which defied the odds to beat Jeonbuk Motors on a penalty shootout in the Asian Champions League final. Esperance plays Al-Sadd on Dec. 11, the same day that Mexico's Monterrey faces the winner of the tournament curtain raiser for the right to meet Santos in the semifinals. Kashiwa should emerge victorious from that match but stranger things have happened, Auckland producing two upset wins at the 2009 Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
