Soccer:The Barcelona team will travel to London this evening due to fears of volcanic ash from Iceland drifting towards England ahead of Saturday's Champions League final. The Spanish champions were due in the English capital until Thursday but have opted to arrive two days ahead of schedule.

Pep Guardiola yesterday spoke of his concerns over disruption that could be caused to both the team and the fans — many of whom will travel on the day of the match — and promised the Catalan club would take every precaution.

“I hope the volcano sleeps a little bit longer,” he said. “The important thing is that they tell us; whatever they say we’ll do with the maximum anticipation possible.

“If they tell us we can’t risk the trip then we’ll travel tomorrow or the day after. If not, we’ll travel like we planned — we will not take any risks.”

Guardiola believes Uefa will go ahead with the final even if the fans are unable to travel.

“The final will be on Saturday,” he said. ”Uefa won’t change the date of the final. We will play even if the stadium is half empty, but that would be sad. Let’s hope that the volcano doesn’t disrupt travel plans of all the fans who want to go.”

Barca were forced to travel by bus to Milan to face Inter in the semi-final of last year’s competition after flights were cancelled due to the ash cloud which covered much of western Europe. Jose Mourinho’s Inter won 3-1 at the San Siro and went through 3-2 on aggregate.