Odds for tonight's second leg, from
Bet365
| Barcelona v Espanyol 1.30 4.50 9.00 | | | |
Barcelona squad:
Valdés, Jorquera, Iniesta, Ezquerro, Belletti, Gio, Puyol, Gudjohnsen, Eto'o, Xavi, Van Bommel, Motta, Ronaldinho, Márquez, Messi, Zambrotta, Deco and Thuram
Ezquerro, Van Bommel and Belletti have been called up in place of Sylvinho, Oleguer and Giuly (who has a fever).
Espanyol squad:
Kameni, Gorka Iraizoz, Lacruz, Torrejón, Zabaleta, David García, Sergio Sánchez, Jarque, Rufete, Moisés, Fredson, Costa, De la Peña, Moha, Riera, Coro, Jonathan, Pandiani and Luis García.
They've named a 19-man squad as they're still not sure on the firness of David Garcia. Jonathan and Moha both come back into the squad after missing the first leg, while Tamudo drops out through injury.
Probable lineups according to ESPN:
BARCELONA: Valdés, Belletti, Puyol, Márquez, Gio, Motta, Deco, Xavi, Messi, Ronaldinho and Eto'o.
ESPANYOL: Kameni, Zabaleta, Lacruz, Jarque, David García or Moha, Costa, De la Fredson, Rufete, De la Peña, Luis García and Pandiani
Struggling to find a bet on this one. Barcelona obviously don't need to win this one, a draw would do them after winning the away leg 1-0. They also have to bear in mind they've got games coming up on Tuesday (Bayern Munich) and Friday (Sevilla). While their game against Bayern might only be a friendly, I'd presume they're not planning on bringing Bayern over to Spain for a friendly when their season's already started only to put out a reserve team, so I'd expect the big names to be playing in that one (unless they've got some kind of agreement with Bayern to both rest players, but in that case you'd have to ask what's the point of arranging the game in the first place), and certainly in the European Super Cup on Friday. On that basis I thought they might rest a few players tonight, but going by those ESPN line-ups, it doesn't look as though they will be. I wonder whether their plan might be to come out with all guns blazing, looking to finish Espanyol off in the first half before subbing a few players at half-time or early in the second half?
Only really considering two bets at the moment - for the first half to be the highest scoring half @ 21/10, based on that possible scenario above, and only one team to score @ 8/11. Will probably wait until the lineups are confirmed before deciding on those though.