BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Spanish giants Barcelona will be out to ease the pressure on their under-fire coach Frank Rijkaard and president Joan Laporta by progressing to the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday.

The 2006 continental champions beat German side Schalke 04 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen last Tuesday to take the advantage in their quarter-final clash but they have to put behind them some disappointing recent domestic displays.

They were held to a 0-0 in the Nou Camp by Getafe on Sunday, only the second time they have failed to score at home in La Liga this season, and they have now only won once in their last seven Spanish first division outings.

Barca's poor form has seen them slip to third in the Spanish first division and the Catalan club's ever-vocal and critical supporters vented their frustration on Sunday by demanding the resignation of Rijkaard and Laporta.

"These sort of things happen," said Rijkaard diplomatically on Sunday.

"But I hope our fans use up more energy getting behind the team against Schalke," added the Dutch coach, who is widely expected to leave Barca in the summer if his team go without a trophy for the second successive season.

However, Barca's superstar striker Samuel Eto'o warned that Schalke could feel the backlash for them coming up short on the home front.

"We are super-angry that we couldn't beat Getafe. After all, we hit the post three times. Wednesday is another game and we are Barca, so we are not going to let our heads drop," said the three-time African Player of the Year.

"We've got to forget what the crowd are doing because they are now not going to change their opinion until the end of the season.

"The players have faith in the coach and we want to win the Champions League because that will shut up our critics and our true fans can then celebrate in the streets," added Eto'o.

Barcelona are expected to start with the same line-up that took the field in the first leg as Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Deco are all injured.

In direct contrast to Barca's current decline in La Liga, Schalke are starting to get into their stride in the Bundesliga and they have won four of their last five games to move up to second place behind leaders Bayern Munich.

Despite having gone down to a Bojan Krkic goal in the first leg, Schalke are also optimistic they can turn the tables on Barca and add to Rijkaard's misery.

"You don't get to play against the best of the best that often so the return will be quite something," said the German international Jermaine Jones.

"We have 90 minutes to consign the first match to memory and we know Barca can be fragile in defence. Nobody gave us a chance against Porto yet we made the quarter-finals. We have been written off in the Bundesliga and now we are second. Go figure," added the Schalke midfielder.

The big debating point in Germany is whether striker Kevin Kuranyi should have been guaranteed to start by Schalke coach Mirko Slomka after struggling to find the net recently.

"Kevin is a big player and will certainly be there for a big game like this," commented Slomka after Saturday's 1-0 win over Hansa Rostock, with Halil Altintop getting the only goal of the game.

Schalke's Danish striker Soren Larsen, who was on the bench in the first leg against Barca, complained bitterly to the German media on Monday that Kuranyi was being given unwarrented preferential treatment by Slomka.

"Why can't the manager just let me play football? We all know that Kevin will start in Barcelona. Even if I'd scored twice I wouldn't have been playing on Wednesday. I know what the boss is like," fumed the unhappy Larsen.

At stake for Barca and Schalke is potentially a mouth-watering and lucrative semi-final against Manchester United, who face Roma at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

The English Premiership leaders are the overwhelming favourites to make the Champions League last four after beating the Italians 2-0 in Rome last Tuesday.