Hull City vs Sheffield Wednesday Betting Tips & Predictions

The stakes couldn’t be higher as Hull look to secure a return to the top flight at the first attempt while Wednesday are looking to end 16 years away from the Premier League. It’s too long for a club of their size to have been away from the elite but in truth they haven’t really come close to bouncing back since their relegation in 2000. They’ve only once previously finished in the top ten of the Second tier during that period and hadn’t made the play-offs until this season.

The mastermind of their success this term has been Carlos Carvalhal, who has both improved their style of play and improved results as the Owls pipped Cardiff for the final play-off spot. They came in as underdogs against Brighton, who narrowly missed out on automatic promotion but a 2-0 win at Hillsborough set up a 3-1 aggregate win over the Seagulls although they did have to withstand some heavy pressure particularly in the opening half against Brighton in the 2nd leg.

Hull were aiming for automatic promotion this term having kept the majority of the side that dropped out of the Premier League together but a poor run of form in the Spring put pay to their hopes. However they ended the season with a convincing 5-1 win over Rotherham and carried that into the play-offs where they were impressive 3-0 winners away to Derby in the Semi Final 1st Leg to all but book their Wembley appearance. The Rams gave them a real fright in the 2nd Leg but Hull held on to seal their date in London.

The Tigers come in as favourites but that may suit Wednesday who have enjoyed the underdog tag this season. There is certainly more pressure on Hull but they do possess a bit more all round  quality than their opponents and on paper at least should shade it. However anything can happen in a one-off match when the stakes are so high so picking a winner is no formality here but we should see goals.

Hull have shown their goalscoring prowess in recent weeks but they’ve not been as strong defensively as they were at the start of the season. Since the start of March Hull have kept just 3 clean sheets in 16 matches and with the likes of Fernando Forestieri, Gary Hooper and Ross Wallace, the Owls have players who can seriously test their defensive metal. Wednesday aren’t entirely convincing at the back though and both teams have scored in 6 of their last 9 games.

For those reasons, you can see goals at both ends here and backing both teams to score at 21/20 looks to offer good value.