Football – England – Championship Play off Semi Final 2nd Leg
Saturday 16th May 2015 – Kickoff: 1215hrs
Carrow Road provides the setting for this vital second leg with Norwich City and Ipswich Town in a deadlock at 1-1 after the opening leg at Portman Road last weekend. The heat now turns up another notch in this east anglian derby with the stakes raised for a place in the Championship Play Off Final at Wembley, as well as the obvious bragging rights involved.
Norwich narrowly missed out on automatic promotion up to the Premier League as they fell three points short of second placed Watford, but having achieved their first goal of avoiding defeat at Portman Road in the first leg, they’ll no doubt fancy their chances of turning over the Tractor Boys at Carrow Road today.
The Canaries’ home record finished up on 12-6-5 50/24 and they were the Championship’s highest goalscorer at home during the regular season with Jerome (18 goals), along with Hooper and Grabban (12 goals apiece) providing the firepower up front. Incidentally, Norwich City have won six of their last nine on home turf.
Ipswich Town missed the chance to gain an early advantage in this play-off semi final as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Portman Road, and Mick McCarthy’s men appear to have blown their chances of a Wembley appearance as their record on the road during the Championship regular season wasn’t anything to write home about.
The Tractor Boys were actually pretty fortunate to claim a play-off place as they squeezed out Wolves on goal difference and Derby County by just one point, despite losing on the final day of the season 3-2 away at Blackburn Rovers.
Ipswich’s away record finished up on a modest 7-7-9 32/36 and perhaps it’s no surprise that they held the worst away record out of the teams finishing in the top six, along with conceding the most goals on their travels. This is further reflected by the fact that they registered just two away wins from their last ten on the road, but it’s interesting to note that they were involved in seven matches that ended with both teams scoring during this sequence.
The match demands a winner tonight, and with both teams capable of finding the back of the net with Norwich possessing the likes of the aforementioned Jerome, Hooper and Grabban while Ipswich have Murphy and McGoldrick in their attacking personnel, I believe the chances of both teams scoring are pretty high. Now for the winner – well, it’s ‘On the ball City’ isn’t it? Perhaps a 2-1 home win here.
Pick: Norwich City to win and both teams to score – Yes @ 4.00 bet365
