Barnsley hosts Swansea in the first leg of the English Championship playoffs semifinals. The match will be played on Monday, May 17th at Oakwell (Barnsley)
Barnsley has recently been a team that balances between the Championship and League One. And the Tykes have not managed to stay in the higher division for a long time — in the year before last, the club played in a lower tier. But once again it returned to the 2nd division and gained a foothold there in 2020. It was Barnsley who took 21st saving place in the previous season — everything was decided by a one-point advantage over the relegated Charlton (Wigan was two points behind). In August, another new manager appeared. It is Valerien Ismael, who was a high-level defender not so long ago. And with the Frenchman, the club made an incredible leap, gaining 78 points and taking the final 5th place.
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Not so long ago, Swansea showed quite good results in the Premier League and even won the cup. But having returned to the Championship, the Swans cannot win the right to a new attempt to prove themselves in the strongest division of England. At the current level, they are considered favorites in every season. In winter it seemed that finally this status would be reinforced, and the representative of Wales would accompany Norwich and get a direct ticket to the elite. But since mid-March, Steve Cooper's charges have lost a lot of points. They even suffered four consecutive defeats in the spring. In the last five rounds, the Swans gained only one victory over modest Derby County. Beyond that, they lost to QPR and Watford and only tied against Wycombe and Reading.
The clubs played a half dozen head-to-head matches, and Barnsley won in none of them. Now we will see the first leg of the playoff semifinals, and both clubs will be cautious. We think that the fans are unlikely to see an abundance of goals scored.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 goals scored
