Football Results

Semi-finals of the promotion play-off in the Championship are very interesting, as always. Here we have two neighbouring rivals WBA and Aston Villa, where the latter won the first leg 2-1 after turning the result up-side down, which leaves all options on the table. WBA ended up the regular season one place higher than Aston Villa and having four points more. Regarding their head-to-head, West Brom won one, while the second match ended as a draw.

West Bromwich

West Brom was relegated from the Premier League last year and logically they set as a priority an express return to the Premiership. Of course, that was not an easy feat to accomplish as the Championship is regarded as the best second division in the world, and by that it is clear how much efforts it takes to end up at one of first two places. West Brom failed and it had been in the zone for only a couple of rounds at the very beginning of season, while it mostly occupied the third or fourth place.

In the finish of season it was constantly the fourth and it qualified as such for the promotion play-off. They got the home-field advantage in the rematch and that could be very important for them after losing to Aston Villa 2-1 in the first leg. That is not bad result but their fans are sorry as they had a lead for a long time but they received two goals in last 15 minutes. Scorer of the only goal of West Brom D. Gayle was sent off in the finish of match and now cannot play, while Robson-Kanu was suspended earlier. C. Dawson is questionable for the match and Mears will replace him, whill Murhpy will play instead of Gayle.

Probable lineups West Browich: Johnstone – Holgate, Bartley, Hegazi – Mears, Brunt, Johansen, Gibbs – M. Phillips, Rodriguez, Murphy

Aston Villa

Aston Villa had a different regular season that its host. They started well but middle part of the season was very bad and the team slid down to the bottom half of table. Aston Villa had several negative series of results that put them close to the drop zone. In October 2018 they changed the manager but even that didn’t help right at the beginning. However, Dean Smith managed to pull the team together and Aston Villa improved its performances right when it was the most needed, which culminated with an excellent period that started around beginning of March.,

They had 10-game winning streak that propelled them into group of teams that will play the promotion play-off, and they ended up at the fifth place. Aston Villa didn’t win in last two rounds of the regular season; they drew with Leeds 1-1 and lost to Norwich at home but the result had no consequences for them. They again started winning in the 1st leg with West Brom, although the victory didn’t come by itself and the result is not one they hoped for. Aston Villa received a goal and in fact can be happy to win at all. Hourihane and Green are refreshments in the team, while Nyland in injured.

Probable lineups Aston Villa: Steer – El Mohammady, Tuanzebe, Mings, N. Taylor – Hourihane – Green, McGinn, Grealish, El Ghazi – Abraham

Verdict:

It is hard to tell which team is a favorite to win since the 1st leg didn’t bring much clarity to the situation. The two teams are of similar quality and West Bromwhich will enjoy a slight advantage only because that they will play at home. We believe that they will not lose but draw is definitely a probable outcome, just like victory of the home team, which might not be enough to qualify for promotion.

Pick: Asian handicap 0 West Bromwich 2.01 - 101/100 @1XBet