West Brom vs Southampton Prediction and Betting Tips: Two bets at the Hawthorns
West Brom host Southampton at the Hawthorns on Sunday in the first-leg of their semi-final play-off duel, live on Sky Sports Football at 2.15pm.
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Two prized places in next season's Premier League have been gobbled up by Championship title winners Leicester City and runners-up Ipswich Town, meaning four clubs will now battle it out in the play-offs for the final spot in the big time.
Norwich vs Leeds will take centre stage at 12pm on Sunday lunchtime, followed by the duel between West Brom (5th) and Southampton (4th) in the Midlands.
Both teams endured a frustrating end to the standard season, losing three straight games before final day wins boosted morale ahead of the play-offs.
There is little separating the sides in the match betting on Sunday, with hosts West Brom priced at 9/5 to claim the win, while visiting Southampton can be backed at 8/5 to take an advantage back down to the south coast next week. Alternatively, a draw can be found at 11/5.
West Brom vs Southampton Tips
Southampton will be disappointed at clawing their way back into the automatic promotion race only to suddenly fall flat with three straight defeats. However, on the plus side they did end the season on a very positive note, courtesy of a 2-1 win away to 3rd-placed Leeds at Elland Road, which will give the Saints buckets of confidence going into the play-offs.
At 8/5 with Betfred, I like the look of Russell Martin's men to build on that win by claiming another victory on the road this weekend.
West Brom do have a very respectable home record, but only the promoted duo of Leicester (14) and Ipswich (12) cemented more away wins in the Championship than Southampton, who themselves recorded 11, including a 2-0 win over the Baggies at the Hawthorns earlier this year.
In fact, the Saints are somewhat of a bogey team for West Brom, having won seven of the last eight encounters between the sides. This includes both meetings this season and five wins from their last six visits to the Hawthorns.
I'll also be backing Southampton to win, both teams to score, and over 2.5 goals in the match in a 4/1 Bet Builder with BetMGM.
Southampton's matches have featured an eye-popping amount of goals this season. They may have been one of the league's highest scores with 87 goals, but they were often vulnerable at the back, conceding 63 goals across their 46 matches - this was only two goals less than Birmingham who were relegated.
I fancy them to get the job done on Thursday, but the statistics suggest there is a high probability of goals in Southampton games. Both teams to score landed in 30 of their 46 league games, including in 65% of their away fixtures. Similarly, 30 of their matches went over 2.5 goals, which was the most in the whole league.
As for West Brom, their final three league games all went over 2.5 goals, while they've found the back of the net in 16 of their last 19 home games, so we should be in store for a cracker on Sunday.
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