good morning —
The playoffs for the EFL Championship are lastly right here (and so are the playoffs for Leagues One and Two)! With a league that featured such nice parity this season, I believe it is going to be much more troublesome to foretell which aspect will be part of the Premier League.
Let’s check out the matchups:
3 Luton City vs 6 Sunderland
That is Luton City’s second consecutive journey to the playoffs, and this time they’re doing so after a 14-game unbeaten streak to finish the season. Even after shedding supervisor Ryan Edwards, this membership has managed the joint second-best defensive report within the league.
Luton City aren’t the sort of membership to blow groups out of the water 3-0 or 4-0. Actually, they haven’t scored greater than three targets per sport since December 29. What makes them such a troublesome aspect is that protection, as alluded to earlier. The Hatters stored 19 clear sheets this season, second-best within the league.
The Hatters usually line up in a 3-5-2 with Elijah Adebayo becoming a member of main scorer Carlton Morris on high.
Their opponents, Sunderland, can obtain the uncommon double-promotion after arising from League One. The Black Cats are coming off a convincing 3-0 away win towards Preston to seal a playoff spot, however Sunderland have one of many worst dwelling information within the league.
In addition they have the youngest common Beginning XI within the league.
Jack Clarke stays Sunderland’s most fun participant (and I nonetheless can’t imagine Spurs bought him). Clarke created 41 possibilities this season, together with 5 targets and 6 assists.
Each conferences this season ended 1-1, with Sunderland coming again in every fixture.
First leg: 13 Might / Second leg: 16 Might
4 Middlesbrough vs 5 Coventry
Boro and Preston noticed out a tense 1-1 draw to finish the season, securing Coventry’s place within the playoffs.
Coventry gained their first encounter 1-0, however Boro are kind of a special workforce than underneath then-manager Chris Wilder.
Middlesbrough boast the league’s finest scorer, assists chief and top-of-the-line scoring information within the league, however they’ve stumbled after shedding out on automated promotion.
They do have some critical firepower with Chuba Akpom, the league’s main scorer, and Cameron Archer. Coventry have their very own ace striker, nonetheless, in Viktor Gyokeres, who’s scored 21 targets this season. Gyokeres performed 4,022 of a doable 4,140 minutes this season, in line with Opta Analyst. That’s a variety of minutes!
Michael Carrick has additionally had the misfortune of needing to patch his lineup in current weeks largely due to accidents, whereas playoff-hunting Coventry’s Beginning XI largely remained unchanged. #momentum!
First leg: 14 Might / Second leg: 17 Might
Fitzie’s observe of the day: California, by Oh He Useless
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