Cardiff v Nottm Forest: Bluebirds to fly highest on Saturday night

Cardiff v Nottingham Forest
Saturday 21st April, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports

Cardiff's sights set on automatic promotion

Cardiff eradicated memories of recent last-gasp disappointments by bouncing back to winning ways with two late goals at Norwich on Saturday. The victory at Carrow Road sent Neil Warnock's side back into the automatic promotion places with only three fixtures to play.

The Bluebirds shaded an even first half despite Norwich hitting the woodwork, but never truly looked like forcing a breakthrough. Their defensive cause wasn't helped by Sol Bamba's injury but Craig Bryson's midfield influence and Junior Hoilett's trickery kept the Welsh outfit in contention.

City were eventually rewarded for their bold approach after the interval when substitute Kenneth Zohore struck five minutes from time. And Hoilett's superb strike capped arguably Cardiff's most important victory of the whole campaign in stoppage-time.

Nottingham Forest end barren goal streak

Nottingham Forest completed a dramatic turnaround to clinch their first success in six matches when coming from behind to beat Ipswich 2-1 at the City Ground on Saturday. Ben Brereton's 89th-minute penalty and Joe Lolley's volley five minutes into stoppage-time secured maximum points for the Tricky Trees.

After going into the break 1-0 down against the run of play, Forest found themselves on the second longest goal drought of their history having failed to score in six and a half matches. Ben Osborn, Ben Watson and Brereton all failed to break the deadlock in what was turning out to be a frustrating afternoon.

Tricky Trees boss Aitor Karanka admitted he was "disappointed for most of the game, about 85 minutes," but Forest's first triumph since beating Birmingham on 3 March was well received by supporters as the club confirmed their Championship status.

Bluebirds firm favourites for maximum points

Back-to-back defeats to top-six rivals Wolves and Aston Villa threatened to derail Cardiff'spromotion bid but the Bluebirds' weekend win has put the Welsh club back into pole position to seal second spot. The hosts are now rated 1.50 favourites to collect another vital victory on Saturday evening.

Cardiff have been in fabulous form on home soil this season, suffering just three defeats (W15-D3-L3) with a quite incredible W13-D1-L0 return when welcoming teams outside of the top-eight. All bar two of those 13 triumphs came alongside Over 1.5 Goals and a repeat appeals at 9/10.

Nottingham Forest were minutes away from a fourth successive loss last time out and the Tricky Trees have secured only four wins since early December. The visitors have W2-D2-L8 at top-half teams, including W1-D0-L5 at sides starting the weekend in the play-off positions, shipping two goals in each reverse.

Goals on the agenda

Neither team has provided regular profit for Over 2.5 Goals 1.90 backers this term. However, although 19/42 (45%) of their collective home/away encounters have featured fewer than three goals, the goals per-game average over those fixtures stands at a healthy 2.60.

Indeed, seven of Cardiff's previous ten encounters with bottom-half dwellers has beaten the two-goal line suggesting a goal-heavy game isn't out of the question despite Nottingham Forest's obvious issues in front of goal.

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