It’s hard to predict the result when two teams are playing three times in a short period of time. There are no set in stone predictions for that. But we remember that Espanyol gave their all in the first half against Barcelona in La Liga. The score of the first half was 0:0, but Espanyol fans behaved like their team had won the trophy. Now they play at Camp Nou in the Spanish Cup. I don’t know if Luis Enrique changed the team lineup, but Barcelona will definitely try to score in the first half to make the rest of the game more comfortable.
Maybe Barcelona will crush Espanyol with lot of goals. We want to know their starting eleven. What if Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez will be left on the bench? Seems to me that Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan will appear on the pitch. They need time to adapt, but I think that Barcelona will score twice in the first half anyway. So my bet is Barcelona to score over 1.5 goals in the first half.