Burnley hosts Peterborough in the English FA Cup 1/32 finals. The match will be played on Saturday, January 4th at Turf Moor (Burnley)
Burnley’s football is primitive: we see the going off defense through a medium and long pass, and the “outdated” 4-4-2 scheme, and a huge number of crosses into the foreign penalty area. Dyche rarely shuffles the cards because he understands that any significant changes can worsen the level of teamwork and mutual understanding. In the end, we have a team that is especially vulnerable in matches for which a solid number of regular players are unavailable. Burnley has already lost to Sunderland in another cup (1:3), and this team is a middle peasant of England's third most important division. Drinkwater, who appeared in the field then, played only one game in the championship, Vydra played five matches, and some defenders even did not appear in the first eleven of the Clarets after that meeting. The new rotation will surely bring problems to the hosts.
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The first halves of Peterborough are successful not only in cup games: in the championship, they are seventh in terms of points taken before the halftime. The team suffered only six defeats in the first half by the 24th round, and the scoring was not opened in seven matches at all. There are 12 goals conceded - a decent indicator by the standards of the league. It must be assumed that the status of the team dictates the need to play from a position of strength in the championship, and therefore some negative indicators could be avoided by playing defense first. It is unlikely that Peterborough will attack in the match against the team from the top division.
Burnley will be forced to play with excess ball possession, which the team does not like at all. The lack of hosts’ coordination will create free space for overlaps of Peterborough’s players. Even if the hosts manage to score before the break, the visitors may answer with their goal. The teams have not met for a long time, but when they played four times the Championship in 2011-13, Burnley won the first half only once, although each time it finished higher in the tournament standings. Now the duelist has obtained only a name but has lost motivation for a head-to-head match. Peterborough is capable of not losing the first half.
Prediction for the match: Peterborough to win the first half with +0.5 handicap
