Espanyol vs Barcelona Betting Tips

The 1st leg at the Camp Nou was a bad tempered affair and a game which Espanyol finished with 9 men after the sending offs of Papakouli Diop and Hernan Perez in the 2nd half. The visitors had started well taking a shock lead through Felipe Caicedo’s goal but a brace from Leo Messi had the hosts 2-1 up at the break. Gerard Pique and Neymar added 2nd half goals to give Barcelona a comprehensive 4-1 win.

That should be the end of the matter as far as this tie is concerned although Barca can’t afford to completely take their eye off the ball and memories of 4-0 and 4-1 Barcelona defeats away from home earlier in the season will offer a glimmer of hope to their city rivals.

These sides met in the league at the Power8 Stadium the weekend before the cup clash and it was a much tighter affair, which ended in a 0-0 draw and Espanyol might see this as a rare opportunity to get one over on their city rivals even if they are unlikely to have any chance of going through.

Barcelona had several first teamers in Zurich on Monday for the FIFA Ballon D’or ceremony in which Leo Messi was crowned the world’s best player for the 5th time. That didn’t represent ideal preparation for this match however and it’s likely that Luis Enrique will leave several regulars out here but name a strong bench in case they run into any difficulty. Luis Suarez is suspended for the visitors in any case although Espanyol will be without the two players who saw red in the 1st leg.

A weakened Barca side should offer Espanyol a chance and they look good value at 2.025 when starting with a +1.5 Asian Handicap here.

It’s almost impossible to see them turning this tie around but with their league form not great, they could do with a good performance and result to improve morale and at 9/1 you can back them to secure a 1-1 draw.