Cardiff vs Leicester prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-12-28 19:45.
Cardiff City would have been kicking themselves on Boxing Day as they let a 2-1 lead against bottom-half Plymouth slip to draw 2-2, making it just two wins from seven for Erol Bulut’s side (D1, L4). That result saw them move to within two points of the top six, yet they still fell to 11th in what’s proving to be a congested race for the Championship play-off places.
With so many sides vying for promotion, Cardiff can ill-afford to drop more home points here, but they’ve developed an unwanted habit of late, allowing their opposition to take the initiative in home matches. Including their Boxing Day draw, they’ve now conceded first in four of their past five home matches, with each of those games failing to deliver a victory (D1, L3), whilst the Bluebirds have also conceded first in three of their last four H2Hs with opponents Leicester City (W1, D1, L2).
The visitors dropped points in a Championship game for just the fifth time this season on Tuesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw at promotion rivals Ipswich Town, who grabbed a 93rd-minute equaliser. However, the league leaders still finished the round 11 points clear of third place and could match their longest unbeaten run of the campaign (nine) should they avoid defeat here in Wales (W6, D2).
Leicester manager Enzo Maresca can have very few complaints about how his first season in senior management has played out, yet one minor issue is his side’s susceptibility to conceding goals on the road. They’ve kept just one clean sheet in their last eight league road trips (W5, D2, L1), and while form hasn’t massively suffered, it does mean multiple goals are often a necessity to get to seal positive results, with Leicester scoring 2+ goals in eight of their 12 league away games.
Players to watch: Cardiff forward Karlan Grant has scored half of his league goal tally (four) across his past two appearances, whilst opponent Stephy Mavididi has bagged five goals across his last five games and has opened the scoring in each of Leicester’s last two away contests.
Hot stat: Games involving Cardiff have averaged just 0.96 first-half league goals – the second-lowest average in the division.