Aston Villa and Fulham will lay it all out on the line this coming Saturday as the last ticket out of relegation is up for grabs at Wembley Stadium. Which team will see a return to the Premier League? Will it be Aston Villa? Or will it be Fulham? Read on for our preview of this high-profile matchup along with our prediction.
The Lions head to the EFL Championship Play-Off Final after winning their two-match, home-and-away playoffs match-ups against Middlesbrough. In the first leg, Aston Villa took a 1-0 win at Riverside Stadium on May 12 before following it up with a draw against the same club at Villa Park three days later. Aston Villa finished the regular season play in the EFL in goals with 73, including the two they scored in a 2-1 win over Fulham at home in Birmingham back on October of last year. They have not had been scoring well of late, however, as the Lions have only found the back of the net just twice in their last four matches. That said, they could live with that so long as their defense gets its job done. Aston Villa finished second in the EFL prior to the play-offs with 22 clean sheets. In addition, Aston Villa have been a pretty efficient offensive squad with a 16 percent goals conversion rate, which was fifth in the EFL.
Betting on Fulham (+212)
Fulham once had an amazing 23-match unbeaten streak that was broken on May 6 when they absorbed a 3-1 setback at the hands of Birmingham City. They also nearly got eliminated in the play-offs after losing in the first leg to Derby County with a 1-0 away loss. Fortunately for Fulham, they managed to bounced back in the second leg at home with a dominant 2-0 win at Craven Cottage. Fulham are going to be powered by their scoring, as they finished the EFL regular campaign second in the league in goals scored with 81. The Cottagers are a relentless attacking team that had 675 total shots in the season – second most in the EFL. Although they split the two legs with Aston Villa, Fulham won the possession battle in both meetings.
