Championship Play-Off: Fulham vs. Cardiff City Betting Preview, Odds, Prediction

Fulham got a two-goal advantage after the opening 90 minutes, and they are now looking to keep that distance and advance to the finals of the Championship promotion playoffs. The Cottagers played without Mitrogol, who had some slight injury problems, but that didn’t matter at all. On the other side, the Bluebirds were more shocked with the outcome, especially after the recent matches in which they pretty much dominated.

Preview

Fulham (-110) is looking to reach its second straight promotion finals when they play in the Championship. Two years ago, they would enter the Premiership, under the leadership of the Serbian manager Slavisa Jokanovic. There are a lot of players on the current roster from that time, and one of them is Aleksandar Mitrovic, the top scorer in all the professional leagues in England. 

Mitro didn’t play in the first leg, but still, the Cottagers managed to take down the hosts, and secure their fifth win in six matches when the Serbian is not in the lineup. That one game left was a draw. 

Fulham didn’t lose a match in the last eight, posting six wins and two draws, having a great finish of the campaign. Apart from the contest against Sheffield Wednesday, 5-3, five straight at Craven Cottage before that one saw under 2.5 scores, and both teams not to score.

Cardiff (+300) was on a three-game winning streak before this loss, and in all those three matches, they would score at least twice, with all those matches going above 2.5 scores. 

If we inspect only the last five matches on the road, there isn’t a pattern that might help see it more clearly. Two games ended with over 2.5 goals, three under that limit, three were without both teams scoring, and two opposite to that. In general, there isn’t some consistent statistics regarding those matches.

The one important thing, however, is that Cardiff won four of them, while loosing the only in… Fulham. It was a game less than three weeks ago, 2-0, but we will focus on it better in the head-to-head section.

Latest News

Mitrovic should be ready, but we believe that Scott Parker might keep him benched as a safety precaution and save him for the finals if everything goes well. After all, the Cottagers have two goals in their pocket, which is a massive edge in these kinds of matchups. 

Apart from the Serb, Cavaliero is out because of an injury.

Among the guests, Cunningham and Vassell are both injured and won’t play.

Head to Head Games

Cardiff didn’t win at Craven since 2013. The last game here took place on July 10, and Fulham won 2-0, with Mitrovic and Onomah netting one goal each. The first part of the season saw these two sides playing a draw in Wales, 1-1.

The game two days ago ended with 0-2 in Fulham’s favor. Onomah in 49th and Kebano in 90+1 netted for the Cottagers.

Prediction

Cardiff has no other option but to attack, and we all know that Fulham likes to strike from the counter-attack. This should be enough for at least three goals, as we just can’t see this one not having a high-efficiency. Moneyline here is at +105.