The second semi-final of the Sky Bet Championship play-offs gets underway on Saturday when the sides who finishes fifth and fourth battle it out at Bramall Lane as Sheffield United take on Nottingham Forest, with both clubs 180 minutes from a Wembley final.
These two are the two biggest sides in the play-offs which will bring their own pressures because whoever wins this semi-final will be huge favourites to return to the Premier League. As ever though it is likely to come down to who handles the occasion the best.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels. The build-up to the game begins at 2.45pm with the kick off in Yorkshire at 3pm.
Sheffield United
Much was expected of Sheffield United this season and it took a change in manager to bring the performances up to match those expectations. Since Paul Heckingbottom replaced Slavisa Jokanovic, who was a dreadful appointment in the first place, the Blades have flown up the league. Unfortunately for those from the red half of Sheffield, they kept hold of Jokanovic for too long and left themselves too much to do to make an immediate return to the Premier League automatically, but they have set up a second chance at achieving their goal.
They go into this match off the back of a 4-0 win over Fulham which technically secured their play-off spot, although as it was they already had enough points prior to that anyway. Sheffield United haven’t been helped by injuries late on in the season but that victory over the champions suggests that they have found a way to deal with them, even if Fulham were a little flat after their title winning celebrations. The Blades have only lost one of their last 15 matches at Bramall Lane.
Nottingham Forest
If Sheffield United have risen through the league under Paul Heckingbottom there might not be words to describe what Nottingham Forest have done under Steve Cooper. Rock bottom when he arrived and going absolutely nowhere under Chris Hughton, their rise was such that going into their penultimate game of the season they were in a position to win automatic promotion. That didn’t materialise though and now they must get over that disappointment and be ready to again in this semi-final.
I actually think Forest are one of the best teams to watch in the entire league. That isn’t a surprise because Steve Cooper is famed for playing pretty football with a young, athletic side and he certainly has that at his disposal here. One question mark over him and his teams are whether they handle the big occasions well. There were signs in their FA Cup run that Forest do and will but then the loss at Bournemouth last week just raised a few question marks once again.
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Team News
Sheffield United are expected to have Morgan Gibbs-White available for this match as he continues his return from a knock. George Baldock was on the bench last week and could be involved but the game might come too soon for Billy Sharp.
Steve Cooper is expected to ring the changes after resting seven of his starters for the final game of the season last week. Three men who will not be featuring though are Max Lowe, Lewis Grabban and Keinan Davis who are all out injured.
Betting
I’ll take a couple of bets for this first leg. The consensus going into these play-offs were that they would be tight and cagey but we didn’t see that on Friday night and I’m not convinced we are going to see it here either. Forest are a side who look to get after the opposition by keeping the ball and working through the thirds while Sheffield United aren’t particularly averse to playing on the counter but have found a real way of using the pace in their side with the power of Sander Berge tucked in behind. I don’t think we’re going to see a gung ho semi-final first leg by any means but I do think there will be plenty of attacking quality on show and chances created. For me, the odds against on both teams to score is a shade too big.
A right-back served us well on Friday night when we landed the 11/2 punt on James Bree having a shot on target and it might well be worth backing Djed Spence to follow suit at 6/1. It is interesting that he is this price when Jack Colback, the likely wing-back on the other side is half the price despite an awful lot of Forest attacks coming down their right side through Spence and Brennan Johnson. Admittedly it will be mostly Johnson in the threatening areas down that side but Spence has the pace to come inside and trouble teams and it might well be that Sheffield United focus too much on Johnson and not enough on Spence. The Middlesbrough loanee has had 26 shots from his right wing-back role this season with nine of them hitting the target and 10 more being blocked on their way to goal. The 6/1 that he hits the target here is plainly too big.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back it here:
Back D.Spence 1+ Shot on Target for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Betfair
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