Wolves vs Stoke PREVIEW & PREDICTION 17/09/2020

On Thursday night, from 19:00, Wolverhampton and Stoke City duel in round 2 of the English League Cup, in a match in which the guests cannot count on the injured Allen and Verlinden. Wolverhampton is the favorite and has only one notable absence, Castro, injured. Even so, the hosts will line up a strong formula at the start.

It’s a local derby near Birmingham, between two teams in totally different situations. Wolverhampton is at its best in its last five decades and plays at a very high level in European cups. But Stoke City are far from the glory days of Tony Pulis’ term, and the white-red team is now fighting in the second league and timidly hopes for promotion. Stoke’s team has improved in the last year, but the “potters” are still far behind in terms of value. Last season, the “potters” barely escaped demotion!

Under the command of Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolverhampton became a formidable team in the Premier League, where they started the season with a 2-0 victory at Sheffield United. Basically, the score was set in the first 10 minutes of the game, and the “wolves” then controlled the game without much trouble. With Raul Jimenez in attack, but also with a lot of very creative Portuguese players, Wolves is adept at keeping the ball in possession and this will ensure his success this season as well. Semifinalist in the UEFA Europa League, the host team approaches the match with maximum confidence.

In comparison, Stoke is a team based more on strength, which does not have a great homogeneity and will struggle to keep the ball in front of Wolves. It is interesting that Wolverhampton also has a very aggressive pressing game, which brings many recoveries in the opposing half. Stoke started the season with a brilliant 0-0 at Milwall, so the victories in the summer friendlies cannot impress too much. Wolves prevailed in the last direct duel in the English Cup, score 2-0 away, a scenario that we believe is possible in Thursday night’s game.

-In the last direct duel, a friendly in 2018, the two teams drew white, 0-0;
-Wolves has only one victory in the last five direct matches with Stoke City;
-In 7 of Stoke City’s last 8 games they have scored under 2.5 goals, and in 6 of them under 1.5;
-In 10 of Wolverhampton’s last 11 matches he has scored at most one of the teams;
-In a single match in Wolves’ last 11, more than two goals have been scored;


PREDICTION: Wolves to win @ 1,63

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