Sheffield United v Nottingham Forest Betting Tips [14 May 2022]

The English Championship promotion playoff is underway with leg one of the semifinals when Sheffield United host Nottingham Forest at Bramall Lane. The two teams meet after finishing fourth and fifth in the league table, with Forest finishing on 80 points while Sheffield totaled 75 points. It’s the hosts that enter into this match in the better form and should be high on confidence after knocking off league leaders Fulham by an eye-opening scoreline of 4-0 at home in their last match. The Blades have now made it three wins in a row and couldn’t have asked for a better performance to prepare themselves for today’s match. Forest, on the other hand, looked to have finally cooled off after their remarkable run of nine wins in 10 matches. A 1-0 loss to Bournemouth followed by a 1-1 draw against Hull is the first time since February that Forest has gone two matches without a win. 

These two teams shared the spoils on both occasions in the league season with each match finishing 1-1. It’s important to remember that there is no away goals rule in the promotion playoffs which should incentivize the home side to be more attacking, as they don’t have to worry about the repercussions of conceding such a heavily weighted goal. This should benefit Sheffield United, who have been one of the Championship’s best home teams with a record of 13-5-5 and a goal differential of +23. The Blades possess arguably the greatest home field advantage in terms of their increased performance, with the difference in their defensive statistics being the most striking. Sheffield have conceded just 15 times at home and have kept a clean sheet in more than half of their matches at Bramall Lane compared to conceding 30 away from home. They’ll have a tough test on their hands though, as Nottingham Forest have maintained excellent consistency when playing away this season and have the third best record with 37 points from 23 away matches.