Championship play-off final preview: Forest favourites to end 25-year top flight absence

The Championship season comes to its climatic close with the fight for the third promotion spot between Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield.

Ahead of the final fixture in the 2021/22 English season, we preview the opponents and stakes in what is rarely a dull occasion at Wembley.

Nottingham Forest

Sheffield United were this year’s victims of the chaos the Championship play-offs rarely fail to deliver. They were narrowly beaten by a resolute Nottingham Forest and a particularly extraordinary Brice Samba who made three saves in the penalty shootout.

Forest have had a fantastic season under Steve Cooper, finally making it into the play-off positions after years of close shaves.  They have been well organised under the Englishman, shipping only 40 goals, the second lowest in the table this season and are favourites at 1/2 to lift the trophy and 11/10 to win in 90 minutes.

Thanks to stellar efforts from Brennan Johnson and Lewis Grabban, Forest have had no trouble scoring, with the duo netting 32 times between them, propelling The Reds into fourth spot.

Brennan’s eye for goal has him as the favourite to be the first goalscorer in the tie at 4/1 and 8/5 to score anytime, but unfortunately Lewis Grabban misses out with a hamstring injury.

After a tight and slightly scrappy semi-final affair finished 3-3 on aggregate, penalties were needed to settle the two and it was The Tricky Trees along with a helping hand, or two, from Brice Samba that emerged victorious.

Going into the final at Wembley, Forest are at 11/1 to win on penalties again.

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Huddersfield Town

The Terriers finished the season on a high, scoring at least two goals in their last six league games, winning all but one of them and securing third spot only 6 points behind the automatic promotion places.

They were promoted to the Premier League in the 2016/17 season via the play off so have a good understanding of what it takes to win the 120-million-pound match.

Though finishing above their opponents, they are underdogs at 6/4 to lift the trophy but will take their prior Wembley experience into the game with confidence, and aim to get top talisman, Danny Ward on the scoresheet. He is 12/5 to do so and 6/1 to score first.

It was an average start to the season for Carlos Corberan’s men who won only five of their first 10 fixtures in the Championship, but the turn of the year saw an impressive unbeaten streak that was only ended by a 2-1 defeat to Sunday’s opponents in the FA Cup.

Huddersfield’s resolute defence makes them hard to beat, and sees the odds of under 2.5 goals quite high at 4/7 and the correct score of 1-1 in 120 minutes, the most likely result, at 9/2.

A hotly contested affair can be expected with a place among the English elite up for grabs. With the two teams absent from the Premier League for much of the last century, they will be eager to lay their claim and to inspire Wembley. Both teams to score seems very likely at Evens.

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