On Monday, at 19:45, Cardiff and Fulham duel in the semifinals of the promotion play-off in the Premier League. The Welsh start with a second chance, given that both teams played last season in the first echelon! One of them has the chance to return to the Premier League, but the road through the Championship play-off is not easy at all.
Cardiff does not have Cunningham and Vassell at their disposal, while Fulham come with a full batch to Wales. The two were neighbors in the standings in the regular season. Cardiff finished 5th (goal average 68-58), while Fulham was 4th (goal average 64-48) and had 8 points more than the white-blues. At the end of the season, both pressed the “acceleration” and secured their place in the playoffs without too much emotion. The differences are very small here!
Cardiff comes after consecutive victories with Derby (2-1), Middlesbrough (3-1) and Hull (3-0), the latter being already “buried” in relegation. Overall, Cardiff had good performances this season, but masked their defensive problems with a fairly powerful attack. Fulham ended the season well, with victories over Nottingham (1-0), Cardiff (2-0) and Sheffield Wednesday (5-3), but also with two draws against WBA (0-0) and Wigan ( 1-1).
Fulham have only one defeat in the last five official duels with Cardiff, but we expect once again a tactical duel, in which the defense will be the foreground. The statistics from the previous duels should be kept and we will bet on “Under 2.5 goals in the match”. We keep in mind that Cardiff scored 61% of the goals this season after the break, so it’s normal to see a first half with few opportunities, played at a slower pace.
The last 3 direct duels had less than three goals;
Fulham have not lost in the second league in 7 consecutive stages;
Cardiff has only one draw in the last 10 stages of the championship;
Cardiff has 11 wins and only 3 defeats in home matches this season;
Fulham have 10 draws in 23 away matches this season;
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / NO @ 1,82
