Aston Villa V Bradford City Betting 

Tuesday brings the second leg of the semi-final between Aston Villa and Bradford City in this year’s League Cup. The first leg provided a shock as the Villains slumped to a 3-1 defeat away at Valley Parade. This year’s giant killers Bradford have already picked up some remarkable victories in previous rounds and will look to continue their excellent campaign by progressing to the final. The League 2 side will go into this match with bags of confidence and lead with a great aggregate advantage. Choose a free bet for this match here.

Aston Villa

Aston Villa’s League Cup run has so far been a saving grace for Paul Lambert and his side. A horrid Premier League campaign has left them in seventeenth and they now seem certain to be involved in a relegation battle. If they manage to turn around this Cup tie it may just inspire a more successful second half to their season. Skybet has them placed at 4/11 to win this match and are 1/1 to end up qualifying. A price which still suggests that most people will be backing Villa to turn their fortunes around at home. However Aston Villa have only managed to pick up one win in their last eight matches, which was a home win against Ipswich in the FA Cup. One player that will be most likely to lead Villa to the final may be Christian Benteke. The Belgian has turned out to be a good signing for them and has so far scored ten goals this season, three of which have come in the League Cup. William Hill has priced him at 8/11 to score anytime for this match and for him to score the first goal it is 3/1. You would think that Villa are going to chase this game and try to score as many goals as possible so there could potentially be a lot of goals in the game. Over 3.5 goals is at 6/4 for this match.

Aston Villa’s League Cup Progress:

Aston Villa 3-0 Tranmere Rovers

Manchester City 2-4 Aston Villa (After Extra Time)

Swindon Town 2-3 Aston Villa

Norwich 1-4 Aston Villa

Bradford 3-1 Aston Villa

Bradford City

Regardless of the result in this game Bradford will be extremely pleased with their performances in the Cup and will see this as a successful campaign even if they lose. The pressure is defiantly on the Premier League side which will certainly work in Bradford’s favour. Whilst a win may be a tough ask there is no doubt that they could still get to the final if they limit the amount of chances Villa get. A Bradford win is priced at 13/2 on William Hill and for them to qualify is at 8/11. They go into this game as slight favourites to qualify but they will certainly be aware that the hard part is still to come. A defensive approach could see this game end in a draw, which is at 4/1 on William Hill and a win or draw double chance is 7/4. However like Villa they are not on the best of runs either having only won two games in their last eight. Their talisman upfront is Nahki Wells who has scored an impressive seventeen goals this season with a total of three of those goals coming in the League Cup. He is at 7/1 on William Hill to score the first goal and is at 2/1 to score anytime after he managed to grab the first goal of the first leg against Villa.

Bradford’s League Cup Progress:

Notts County 0-1 Bradford City (After Extra Time)

Watford 1-2 Bradford City

Bradford City 3-2 Burton Albion (After Extra Time)

Wigan Athletic 0-0 Bradford City (Bradford win 4-2 on penalties)

Bradford City 1-1 Arsenal (Bradford win 3-2 on penalties)

Bradford City 3-1 Aston Villa

Summary

This is a very hard game to call in terms of who will qualify but the favourites to grab the win will definitely be Aston Villa. Villa to win 2-0 is at 13/2 on Bet365, as is a Villa 2-1 victory. If Bradford manage to grab an early goal then they will certainly fancy their chances of progression and the pressure put on a very inexperienced Villa side may prove too much for them. Villa know that they will have to work extremely hard to make sure this game is won in normal time, so it could well be a possibility that this one ends up going into extra time. However the nothing to lose attitude that Bradford will adopt may just be enough to see them make the final and complete an incredible Cup run.

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Article by Max Hodge

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