Cardiff City v Nottingham Forest Betting Tips: Can either side find their form?
Published:Odds and preview for Championship clash
Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest will both be looking to kick-start a promotion push when they meet at the Cardiff City Stadium tonight.
The action gets underway at 19:00 on Sky Sports Football andwe’ve got a full range of pre-match odds and insights to whet your appetite.
Match Odds
Cardiff’s home advantage gives them the edge according to our traders who have them at 29/20 to take the tie – despite patchy form that saw Neil Harris’ team lose 2-0 to Stoke City last time out.
Sabri Lamouchi’s Nottingham Forest sit fifth in the Championship table but haven’t won in three. They’re priced at 21/10 to win, with the draw at 11/5.
We also both teams to score at 17/20.
Form
Forest might have been forgiven for thinking their season was about to take off when they beat second-placed Leeds 2-0 back in early Feb.
However, they failed to follow up on that result and haveonly taken two points from their last three ties, including a 1-0 defeat athome to struggling Charlton.
Cardiff sit six points outside the play-off positions and their failure to find a focal point up front has hampered their efforts to climb the league, with injured top scorer Lee Tomlin on just seven goals for the season.
Despite only three wins from their last nine games, Cardiffhaven’t lost at home in eight. Furthermore, they’ll be keenly aware threepoints tonight would put them within touching distance of a coveted play-offposition.
Cardiff certainly have the weight of recent history on theirside – they’ve won nine of the last 10 league meetings between the two teams.
Likely XIs
Cardiff could welcome Aden Flint back in to the heart of thedefence with Curtis Nelson most likely to make way. Junior Hoilett is alsoavailable for selection once more and will likely take up a position on theleft wing, at the expense of Josh Murphy.
Forest are still waiting on the fitness of Samba Sow and this game might come around too soon for the midfielder. Ryan Yates could potentially step in to the side, allowing Tiago Silva to move into a more advanced role, or Lamouchi may opt to continue with Adama Diakhaby.
Key Battles
Key to Forest’s success is Lewis Grabban’s ability to find the back of the net. He’s failed to score in five games now, despite remaining the league’s joint-third top scorer with 16 goals to his name. If the normally-prolific striker can rediscover his touch in front of goal, Forest will profit.
Cardiff on the other hand, need to find a way to win infront of their home fans. Six of their last seven at the Cardiff City Stadiumhave ended in a draw. Perversely, the only side they have managed to beat athome in that period are league leaders West Bromwich Albion.
Cardiff also need to cut out their bad habit of concedingearly goals. Manager Neil Harris will need to find a way to ensure that hisplayers can maintain their concentration in the early period of the game, orthey could find themselves on the back foot once more.
Goalscorer Odds
Despite his recent struggles in front of goal, Forest’s Lewis Grabban can be found at 4/1 to score first.
With the goals spread evenly across the Cardiff City players the likes of Callum Paterson, Danny Ward and Robert Glatzel can be found at 5/1 to score first.
Junior Hoilett’s return to the team sees him priced at 14/5 to get on the scoresheet anytime.
All odds and markets correct at time of writing
