Sheffield Wednesday vs Wolverhampton Predictions

Sheffield Wednesday of the Championship will look to pull off a minor upset on Tuesday evening when they square off against Premier League Wolves in the 2^nd Round of the League Cup at Hillsborough.

The Owls negotiated a tricky tie in the 1^st Round as goals from Marco Matias and Adam Reach proved enough to beat Sunderland 0-2 at the Stadium of Light, and their reward is a test against the side that ran away with the Championship title last season.

In contrast to Wolves, Wednesday endured a poor campaign in 2017/18, eventually finishing 15^th in the second tier after the appointment of Dutch boss Jos Lukuhay in January.

However, they were actually one of only a few sides who got competitive with Wolves over both league meetings last term, despite finishing 42 points shy of their West Midlands rivals in the final table.

A Ruben Neves goal was enough to edge Wednesday out of a close encounter at Hillsborough in December, before the teams played out a 0-0 stalemate at Molineux in April.

Their gutsy performances against the champions last term will give them hope of pulling out a result this Tuesday, and the hosts will be feeling much better about life in general after back to back home victories last week pushed them up to 14^th in the Championship standings.

Tom Lees and Barry Bannan were on the scoresheet for the Owls in a 2-1 midweek success against Millwall and that was followed up with victory by the same score line against Ipswich Town on Saturday, thanks to a double salvo from the dangerous Lucas Joao.

But if confidence results are anything to go by, Wolves surely have this one after holding Premier League champions Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at Molineux on Saturday.

Home fans were dreaming of far more after Willy Boly put Nuno Espirito Santo’s charges ahead just before the hour mark, however a goal from Aymeric Laporte 20 minutes from time meant that the spoils were shared.

It was Wolves’ second draw from their first three games in the top flight, and although they’d have wished for a better tally at this stage, that crucial result at the weekend will surely set them up now for better things to come.

Wolves are likely to ring the changes this week for the trip to Hillsborough, but that shouldn’t mean that they’ll be taking this competition lightly as they have a fantastic squad.

Winners in 1974 and 1980, Wolves also have a proud history in this competition and are one of just a dozen clubs to lift the trophy twice or more.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s fringe players will be extremely keen to impress in South Yorkshire, and the likes of Ivan Cavaleiro, Romain Saiss and Leo Bonatini should start with Diogo Jota, Raul Jimenez and Helder Costa rested on the bench following their efforts at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Home advantage definitely gives Wednesday a shout in this one and it’s entirely possible that Wolves may not click into gear if they make wholesale changes.

The last four encounters between the teams have produced just three goals in total, so we’re going to swerve the match betting for what could turn out to be a cagey affair, and back under 2.5 goals instead.

For anyone looking for a bet in the correct score market, we’ll plump for the Premier League side to just scrape through via a 0-1 win.