11th-placed Cardiff City welcome 8th-placed Sheffield Wednesday to the Cardiff City Stadium on Friday night to kick off this weekend’s Championship action. Both teams will be well rested after the international break with just few players getting the call up from their respective countries. Cardiff’s home form has been quite good, winning 4/5 matches at home, while Wednesday have won 3/6 on their travels, can anyone take top honours here?

Cardiff vs Sheffield Wednesday Betting Tips and Predictions: Cardiff

Cardiff City have ten attackers on their books this season. A very un-Neil Warnock stat there, but in fairness to the manager, Cardiff really struggled for goals in the Premier League last season, scoring just 34 goals overall, 21 of which were at home and he obviously wants more goals in the team to try and get back to the Premier League as soon as he can. Here’s the problem though, of their ten attackers only five of them have scored this campaign and only two of them have scored two goals of more.

However, their home form is good having won four of their five matches at home this season. They’ve scored nine, that’s 1.8 goals per match and have conceded just three, 0.33 goals per match, so yet again Warnock has turned the Cardiff City Stadium into something of a fortress. In the 2017/18 season, when they were promoted with Wolves, Cardiff scored 40 in 23 matches, 1.74 goals and conceded 16, 0.69 goal per match. Going on those stats alone they’re conceding less goals, but we still feel they need more goals.

Cardiff will still be without defender Sol Bamba and goalkeeper Neil Etheridge who are out with long term injuries while midfielder Joe Ralls who has two goals in his nine matches for the club could make his return.

Cardiff vs Sheffield Wednesday Betting Tips and Predictions: Sheffield Wednesday

Wednesday are yet to draw on the road this season, they’ve won three and lost three of their matches away from home. Gary Monk has done quite well since taking over at Hillsborough, winning 19 points from a possible 33 and they’ve won three of their last five matches overall. With the return of Argentinian striker Fernando Forestieri from his ban for using racist language they look like they could push ahead up the league.

Wednesday have a similar problem to Cardiff, namely in the goals department. Of their five attackers they’ve only scored seven goals this season with 32 year old Scottish striker Steven Fletcher supplying five of those. They’re going to need someone else to step up and contribute more goals if they have ambitions of getting back to England’s top flight.

In team news midfielder Massimo Luongo and defender Tom Lees could return after a short spell on the sidelines, check the team news closer to kickoff.

Cardiff vs Sheffield Wednesday Betting Tips and Predictions: Stats

Over Cardiff’s five most previous Championship matches, they’ve won two, drawn two and lost one. Over 2.5 goals has landed in 3/5 while BTTS has occurred in 2/5.

From Wednesday’s five most previous matches, they’ve won three, drawn one and lost one. Over 2.5 goals has occurred in just 1/5 matches, while BTTS has landed in 2/5.

In recent head to head matches at the Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff have won two and three have ended in draws. Over 2.5 goals has occurred in 2/5, while BTTS has landed in 4/5.

Cardiff vs Sheffield Wednesday Betting Tips and Predictions: Prediction and Tips

The Asian Handicap opened at 0.25 and there’s been little movement, while the goal line opened at 2.5 and there’s been some movement. Over 2.5 goals has drifted from 1.0 to 1.04, while Unders has fallen from 1.90 to 1.86.

Were this match to be played at Hillsborough we’d be backing the Owls, but Cardiff have such a great record at home we just can’t do it.

We’d like to go with Over 2.5 goals here and see a belter of a match to open this weekend’s football action, but those records aren’t great, so we’re going to go with a more cautious bet of Both Teams to Score at 1.82.