Burton Albion vs Cardiff City - Championship preview and odds

Published on: 05/08/2017

Burton Albion vs Cardiff City - Championship preview and odds

August 05 , 2016 15:00pm - Pirelli Stadium

Championship

After consolidating their place in the Championship with a 20th place finish last season, Burton Albion will now look to better that performance and perhaps sneak into the top half of the table. They open their campaign against a Cardiff side who will be hoping to push for promotion places.

Burton managed to avoid the drop by just a single point last term so nothing but improvement will be required this term. Of course, survival was their main objective last term and they won`t enjoy the prospect of another relegation scrap. They have had a mixed bag of results in pre-season but come into this game on the back of a 2-1 win against 2016 Premier League champions Leicester City.

Nigel Clough will be keen to address the issues that caused them to concede 13 times in their last five home games of the previous campaign, in a run that produced just a single win.

The Brewers` squad has been boosted by a large number of free transfers and loan signings and it is still unclear who of those will make it into the starting XI. However, those that were involved in the win over Leicester City will surely be in contention.

Meanwhile, Cardiff will be hoping to start where they left off last term following the arrival of experienced boss Neil Warnock in October. They too have added a handful of free transfers to their squad along with the purchases of Lee Tomlin (from Bristol City) and Danny Ward (from Rotherham). Danish striker Kenneth Zohore will be looking to improve on his 12-goal tally of last season and those two could help him achieve that.

At first glance, it appears that Cardiff have the stronger squad going into this match and their credentials have been backed up by their pre-season performances, where they have won five out of six matches, albeit against lesser opposition.

Recent form (All Comps)

Burton Albion: LWLDL

Cardiff: WLWWW

Betting odds and tips

The away side finished last season strongly and have made significant improvements to their squad this summer. As a result, they should be backed to prevail against a Burton side that could struggle again this term.

You can back Cardiff to win at 29/20 with Bet365.

By Neil Morris