Norwich City vs. Sheffield Wednesday Betting Preview

With only four games to go for the majority of clubs, the EFL Championship has entered the last phase of the season with a lot still to be decided as far as promotion and relegation goes.

I’ve taken a look at the fixtures and picked out ones that might be of interest from a betting perspective.

Norwich City sits at the top of the table and is looking good for automatic promotion while Sheffield Wednesday is battling to make the playoffs.

In this Norwich City vs. Sheffield Wednesday betting preview, I’m going to start with a look at the main odds for the game. I’ll then move on to analyzing both sides.

To finish up, I’ll provide my predictions and a free betting pick.

Here are the odds for the match result betting market. Prices were taken from Betway.

The bookies obviously believe that Norwich will get another three points in its quest to win the Championship and return to the Premier League for the first time since 2016.

The way that head coach Daniel Farke has the Canaries playing this season, I would be inclined to agree with those prices. I will be going into more detail in the analysis section, but with the number of goals that Norwich scores, it is difficult to see anything but a home win here.

But Wednesday desperately needs the points if it is going to secure a playoff spot, so this game has all the makings of a classic.

Although Norwich could only manage a draw away at struggling Wigan Athletic at the weekend, the late equalizer from star player Teemu Pukki was enough to extend his side’s lead over Leeds United at the top of the table to four points.

With just two clubs going up automatically, Norwich is now seven points ahead of the third-place team and now only needs a maximum of six points to clinch its place in the top flight for next season.

After a terrible start to the season where Norwich only won one of its first six games, Daniel Farke’s side has looked like the best team in the Championship for large parts of the campaign and is still producing positive results as we come to the last few games.

Although the entire squad has looked very impressive, Finland international Teemu Pukki has been the main reason for Norwich’s success this season, and his 28 goals in all competitions has been a driving factor in what now looks set to be a return to the Premier League.

Norwich has now gone ten Championship games unbeaten and has only dropped points at all in the last two games against Reading and Wigan. Although some may point to those two draws as a sign that this is a team choking as the pressure mounts, I feel as though it is more a case of Norwich knowing that it has the breathing space to ease off slightly as the job is almost done.

Although Norwich has conceded more goals than its immediate rivals, the sheer number of goals that it scores — thanks mainly to that man Pukki — means that it has the confidence of going into any game with the belief that it will end up winning.

With the ability to come back from losing positions and win, Norwich never seems to know when to give up, and it is this belief that Daniel Farke has instilled in his side that has been a big reason behind its success.

Although the limited pitch time for Jordan Rhodes will be a disappointment to the big money striker, Pukki has more than made up for his absence — and other players, such as Emi Buendia, have come through for the team just at the right time as we enter the last few weeks. The Argentine midfielder has now scored four in the last seven games to boost the Canaries’ chances of promotion.

Norwich thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at Hillsborough earlier in the season, and although it is unlikely that the visitors will be quite as poor in this fixture, I feel that a home win is on the cards.

With just four games to go, Sheffield Wednesday’s late surge of form might not be quite enough to land a playoff spot. An unbeaten run through both February and March — taking in 12 games — saw the Yorkshire club climb from 16^th to 10^th in the table, but two defeats in the last three probably means that it will be Championship soccer for Wednesday again next season.

It has been a strange season for the club with a lot of comings and going that has prevented Wednesday getting into any kind of stride that would have helped the side make a dedicated push for promotion.

An extremely tough fixture run in for the remainder of the season always made it unlikely that Sheffield Wednesday would finish in the top six, but defeat to Leeds at the weekend has just about made that impossible.

The club now sits six points off the top six with games against Norwich and Bristol City still to go. Manager Steve Bruce has done a very good job since he took over at the start of February, and a top-half finish would be a positive move for a club that was struggling early on in the season.

More goals are needed from the front players — especially Steven Fletcher — if Wednesday is to be successful in the future, but the performances of Kieren Westwood in goal have been a big positive for the season, and if the club can keep hold of the keeper over the summer, there could be brighter times ahead.

As you can probably guess, I fancy Norwich to take all three points at Carrow Road and inch one step closer to a return to the Premier League. With the firepower of Teemu Pukki, there always seems to be goals in the side, and I’m not sure if the Wednesday defense will be able to handle the striker in the form he is showing.

The price of 1.55 for a straight home win is not incredibly inspiring, so I think I would add Norwich winning to nil to increase the winning returns.

Wednesday was unable to find the net against Norwich’s title challengers Leeds United in its last game, and I think it will be another blank for the Sheffield forwards in this one.

I have been really impressed with Daniel Farke’s team this season and look forward to seeing how it copes with the massive step up to the Premier League.

Even the most prolific of Championship strikers can sometimes come unstuck at the higher level, so it will be interesting to watch how Pukki copes with some of the best defenders in the world.

Sheffield Wednesday will be able to look back on a relatively successful season, although defeat here will just about end any hopes of a playoff spot.

Please use the comments section to let me know what you think of my preview and pick.