Nottingham Forest vs. Huddersfield Predictions: Two bets for live FA Cup 5th Round clash

The City Ground is the venue for the final bit of this round's FA Cup action. Nottingham Forest host Huddersfield, a place in the quarter-finals and a date with Liverpool await the winners. 

Despite currently sitting seven places below them in the Championship, Steve Cooper’s side are odds-on favourites to progress here. Bet365 currently have them at 19/20 to win and that price may even represent some value as Forest have won 60% of their games when priced accordingly.

Cooper has gone full strength thus far, knocking out two Premier League sides in the process, so expect all the big hitters to feature here. The inform Brennan Johnson should partener Keinan Davis upfront with the only change from the side that drew with Sheffield United coming in net. Brice Samba has served his suspension and should replace Ethan Horvath in between the sticks.

As for Huddersfield, Levi Colwill has tested positive for COVID so is unavailable. 

So far this round has seen 20 goals- that is an average of 2.8 per game- with four of the seven fixtures seeing overs click. I fancy this game to buck this trend though as goals are usually at a premium whenever these sides are involved.

Under Corberán, Huddersfield have lived in the realm of fine margins all season long. 57% of their games have seen two or fewer goals, 31% have seen one or less and 14% have ended goalless! Staggeringly, the sides have been separated by a goal or less in 30 of the 40 games involving Huddersfield in all competitions this season.

As for the hosts, all of their last three games have seen this bet land which has also been the case in both of these sides' domestic clashes.

Price wise, it is short but given the magnitude of the game, I think we’re set for a lack of goals. 

The gulf in price between the different bookmakers for a Lewis O’Brien booking is intriguing. Bet365’s 11/2 looks bold considering the next best odds are 41/10 and that the same angle is as short as 15/8 with Betfair and Paddy Power. If you were to base his price purely on his card per 90 average of 0.20, 4/1 would be apt.

O’Brien has accumulated eight cards this campaign which is unsurprising given his role in midfield. He puts the terrier in the terriers, topping his sides charts for tackles per game (2.4).

Alex Scott, Ben Whiteman, Daniel Johnson, Joe Allen, Joe Rothwell and John Buckley have all been cautioned recently when opposing Forest. That means at least one central midfielder has been booked in four of their last five games. It is also worth noting that James Maddison and Wilfred Ndidi were booked in the last round.

Best of luck if you are backing any of these selections and please remember to gamble responsibly.