Barcelona will travel to Italy by coach as they prepare to take on Inter Milan in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final first leg.

The club indicated in a statement on Saturday night that the volcanic ash cloud that has prevented flights across Europe could force them to change their travel plans.

The statement read: "The club have decided to travel to Milan this Sunday immediately after training. The ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland has obliged the team to modify their travel arrangements, with the flight to Milan remaining the first option.

"The club held an emergency meeting after the derby game to assess the various possibilities of getting to Milan given the air traffic emergency caused by the Icelandic eruption and finally decided to leave a day earlier than planned.

"If a flight is ruled out, the next option will be to travel to Milan by coach."

A club spokesman has now confirmed that the squad will travel by coach, with the team set to spend the night in France before arriving in Italy in time for training on Monday afternoon.

Following the 0-0 draw with Espanyol, Pep Guardiola said: "If we go by road we will not have the desired recovery, but there are many teams in the Segunda B who travel 16 or 17 hours by coach every week."

The party left at around 1500 local time for the 1,000 kilometres trip to the San Siro.

Guardiola has named a strong 20-man travelling party for the match. Left back Eric Abidal, who has yet to receive the green light to return to action following a thigh injury, and 20-year-old reserve defender Andreu Fontas are the two newcomers to the squad that took on local rivals Espanyol on Saturday.

The only players unavailable are Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta, who is set to be absent until mid-May with a hamstring tear, and Ukraine international Dmitrio Chygrynskiy, who is ineligible.

Iniesta was one of two players missing from team training on Sunday morning, the other being Lionel Messi, who worked in the gym.