Coventry City – Southampton

At home, Coventry City will defeat a tough opponent.

With only nine rounds left to play in the regular Championship season, the second-tier of English football, after which the top two teams will be promoted to the Premier League, while the four clubs finishing from second to sixth will contest the final promotion place in a playoff. Coventry City currently has the best chance of being among the two lucky teams heading directly to the Premier League. Frank Lampard's side leads second-placed Middlesbrough by eight points and Millwall by nine. It would seem that the Sky Blues can calmly prepare for the upcoming promotion. However at the start of this year Coventry City endured the strongest stress, which is unlikely to let them relax until they mathematically secure first place in the table. It is worth recalling that at one point Lampard's team led the Championship with a cushion of more than ten points, but squandered it and dropped from first place for a single round. Since then Coventry City stopped messing around, went on a winning run including a victory over a direct competitor, and nearly restored the lost advantage. In the last round the Sky Blues' winning streak reached six matches. In the last two games Lampard's team scored five goals in total and conceded none. Southampton was considered one of the favorites to return to English football's elite before the season began. Yet for a long time the Saints showed mediocre football, achieving similar results. Finally, after Will Still's dismissal, the squad led in caretaker capacity for a while by Tonda Eckert, who in this role managed to win four of five matches and in December last year received a full contract until 2027. Even under Eckert Southampton experienced another downturn, which ended in mid-January. Now the Saints sit seventh, only three points behind the playoff zone, but a draw in the previous round with relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion underscores the club's lack of readiness for promotion to the next level. Let's bet that Coventry City, on its home ground, will beat a tough opponent.