Spanish Supercup -17.08 + 20.08

[jetpilot]

Espanol-FC Barcelona 4.99 3.49 1.67

odds from 10bet.

[jetpilot]

ups...can some of the mod's move this thread were it belong

tnx

[rcgills]

I think it may be worth a little dabble on the 1X for this first leg. Barcelona don't have the best of records in this competition - they won it last year against Betis, but prior to that they hadn't won it since 1996, losing the following three finals (97-99) to Real Madrid, Mallorca and Valencia.

Barça are just back from a gruelling pre-season tour of the USA and Mexico, having travelled nearly 26000 kilometres in total, and it seems many of the players have been complaining that they're exhausted, with Eto'o having commented that even with the sleeping pills they've been given, he's only been getting 4 hours sleep a night. Their pre-season results so far have been a 3-0 win over Aarhus, a 3-0 win against Tigres, 1-1 with Chivas, a 4-4 with América (where Barça had to score 3 times in the last 5 minutes to come from 4-1 down), and a 4-1 win over New York Red Bulls.

Espanyol pre-season have beaten Peralada 5-0, lost 1-0 away to Villarreal, drawn 2-2 with AE Larisa 1964, beaten Ergotelis 3-0 and drawn 0-0 with Palermo.

Spain are playing Iceland tonight in a friendly, but Iceland didn't call up Gudjohnsen, while Spain released Xavi and Puyol due to them struggling with injuries (although www.as.com seems to think they may be set to play for Barça on Thursday in spite of that). That leaves Iniesta as the only Barça player in the Spanish squad, although the game was moved to tonight specifically to allow any Barça/Espanyol players involved to play in both the Spain game and the Supercopa game, so Iniesta may be involved. Edmilson will also be away on international duty. Barça will certainly be hoping that Puyol is available for them, as their defence has looked shaky without him (he missed the last two games of their tour, where they conceded 5 goals).

For Barça, this will be the first of 6 games in the next 19 days, along with the return leg on Sunday, the European Supercup against Sevilla, a friendly against Bayern Munich, the final of the Catalunya Cup against Espanyol, and the opening match of the league season against Celta. With a schedule like that in store, I think Barcelona will be happy enough with a draw here and look to settle the tie in the home leg on Sunday.

The one slight worry though is the fact that Barcelona have won their last 4 games away to Espanyol, and 6 of the last 9.

Will wait until the team news is a bit more concrete, but in particular if Puyol is missing, I may go for the 1X. Overs may also be worth considering.

[rcgills]

Barca start busy fortnight with Super Cup derby
By Simon Baskett
MADRID, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Spanish and European champions Barcelona will have to hit the ground running in a frantic start to the season kicking off with a local derby against Espanyol in the Spanish Super Cup on Thursday.
The traditional curtain raiser to the season against the King's Cup winners is the first of five high-profile matches awaiting Barca in the space of 12 days.
They host Espanyol in the return leg at the Nou Camp on Sunday, meet German champions Bayern Munich in the annual Hans Gamper trophy on Tuesday and then face UEFA Cup winners Sevilla in the European Super Cup in Monaco the following Friday.
Three days later they begin their title defence away to Celta Vigo.
Barca have just returned from a draining two-week promotional tour of Mexico and the United States, but coach Frank Rijkaard has said there is no danger of his players holding back in Thursday's match.
"We are very optimistic about the Super Cup and winning it is one of our objectives this season," the Dutchman said earlier this week. "It is an important trophy for both the players and the club."
The majority of Barca's players have been released from international duty to prepare for the game and Rijkaard's only selection worries centre on Carles Puyol, Xavi and Juliano Belletti who all have minor injury niggles.

NEW SIGNINGS
Thursday's game at Montjuic will give new signings Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram a chance to play their first competitive matches for the Catalans, while Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi will be raring to go after their disappointing performances at the World Cup.
"It is going to be a real pleasure to play alongside Messi, (Samuel) Eto'o, Ronaldinho and Deco," Zambrotta said earlier this week. "The level technical skill and spirit of the team are really impressive."
Espanyol are essentially the same outfit as the one which avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth last season, but they are experts at upsetting the form book as evidenced by their 4-1 demolition of favourites Real Zaragoza in the final of last season's King's Cup.
"There is no doubt that Barca are the favourites," Espanyol coach Ernesto Valverde said on Monday. "They are the league and European champions and play the second leg at home.
"But we are in good shape and nowhere is it written that the favourites always win."

From The Guardian http://football.guardian.co.uk/break...017987,00.html

[jetpilot]

difficult game to predict...rcgills explained how preparations for new season were in FCBarcelona,i've followed them closely,Gudhjonsen were playing a lot in these preparations games and he was one of the best along with of course Ronaldinho,Eto'o is still not at his best...

Last year Barcelona played first leg away in Betis and they trashed home team by beating them 4:0(or it was 4:1),but lost in return leg in camp nou 1:2..


no bet for me

[jetpilot]

Rijkaard did't call Edmilson,Van bommel,Belletti,Saviola,Ezquero for tonight

[rcgills]

Cheers Jetpilot. Here's the 18-man squads for tonight:

Barça:

Valdés, Jorquera, Iniesta, Oleguer, Giuly, Gio, Puyol, Gudjohsen, Eto'o, Xavi, Sylvinho, Motta, Ronaldinho, Márquez, Messi, Zambrotta, Deco, Thuram.

Espanyol:

Gorka Iraizoz, Kameni, Zabaleta, Sergio Sánchez, Lacruz, Jarque, Marc Torrejón, Moisés, Fredson, Costa, De la Peña, Coro, Rufete, Luis García, Tamudo, Pandiani, Riera and David García

Ito and Moha are the two main absentees for Espanyol.

On reflection I'm going to follow Jetpilot's example, no bet for me either.

[jaimegarci15]

Posible line ups:

Espanyol: Iraizoz, Zabaleta, Lacruz, Jarque, David García, Costa, De la Peña o Fredson, Rufete, Riera, Luis García y Tamudo.

Barcelona: Víctor Valdés, Oleguer, Puyol, Márquez, Sylvinho, Deco, Motta, Giuly, Iniesta, Ronaldinho y Etoo.

[steamroller]

hmmmm... imho, barca is still a class better than espanyol irrespective that they are city rivals. espanyol struggled to stay in laliga last season and they were leaking goals at the back. nothing much about their preseaon except for the games against villarreal & palermo, ther rest were holiday trips.
barca although agreed that they could be tired, has a good oppurtunity to be level with their biggest rival real madrid in term of no. of super cups win should barca win this time around.. would be 7 a piece. their preseason has been against good teams in mexico & america which produced plenty of goals.
barca's line-up itself especially with the likes of messi, eto, deco, ronaldinho, xavi, zambrotta, gudjohnson have a formidable attacking force which is worth at least 1 goal. defensively with thuram, it can only get better.
the fact that rikjaard was prepared to seek for a new date if their players were not allowed off from their national duties yesterday shows that he is serious about winning this cup. game is in montjuic - akin to stone's throw from nou camp so its an away game to barca. as the reigning laliga & euro champions, doubtful that barca would want to start their campaign with a loss. definately worth a risk on barca tonite.

[jetpilot]

i like Espanol this year,Rufete can bring other option in attack(on flanks),I think they rely too much on De La Pena and his passing abilities through middle of the field,Luis Garcia is excellent forward and with Tamudo staying healthy they should finish in mid-table at least

[avok]

You have the European champion here against an old rival in front of their home crowd at the time of their opening match.

I don't think Barcelona will play passively and head for a draw. The return leg will be again a derby. They will be not more rested then, probably even more tired.

They called almost all of their international players to form a full strength squad and I think Barcelona will be pushing to break their opponents from the start and rest some players in the return leg.

A lot of prestige is at stake here. Away win for me.

[Bigkegman]

Originally Posted by avok

They called almost all of their international players to form a full strength squad and I think Barcelona will be pushing to break their opponents from the start and rest some players in the return leg.

A lot of prestige is at stake here. Away win for me.

You can read my mind avok :loon

[kompressaur]

21:00 Espanyol - FC Barcelona
QSIV: PPStream
SipTv/Fortunesports: PCast
Mittwoxh Tv: TvAnts

[ONEDUNME]

The more I read about this game, the more sure I am that I'm going to leave the first leg alone.


Too tricky by far. I'll leave it till the second leg for a punt.

Thanks for the info gents.

[bromsgrovegreen]

missus out so a few cans and a bet inrunning if there is any value to be had