Cardiff City vs Liverpool
English Premier League
Sunday 21st April – 16:00
Cardiff City look to keep alive their chances of Premier League survival but face an uphill task as they welcome title chasing Liverpool to the Cardiff City Stadium.
Cardiff City Form
Manager Neil Warnock praised his sides guts and determination after Cardiff ended a run of three straight league defeats with victory over relegation rivals Brighton & Hove Albion in midweek.
Goals from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Sean Morrison were enough to give The Bluebirds a 2-0 away win to effectively keep their chances of top flight survival alive, but they need to string a run of positive results together if they are to avoid the drop into the Championship.
That win over Brighton was only their second in eight league matches and everyone at the club knows it will be a small miracle if they can pick up points against Liverpool.
Liverpool Form
Goals from Sadio Mane and Mo Salah gave Liverpool a vital 2-0 win over Chelsea last weekend to maintain their slender lead at the top of the Premier League table. That lead may have gone by the time they kick off against Cardiff, depending on what happens in Manchester City’s match on Saturday, but Jurgen Klopp’s team will be confident of three points here.
That victory made it five league wins on the bounce and they also kept their double chances alive with a 4-1 win at Porto in midweek to advance to the Champions League Semi Finals.
Looking at Liverpool’s season form shows they have only dropped points to teams outside the top eight twice this season, draws against Everton and West Ham United, and have won fifteen out of fifteen against teams placed twelfth and below.
Head to Head
Liverpool have won the last five meetings between these two sides, since 2007, including the last three league meetings in which they have netted a total of thirteen goals. Cardiff last picked up a win over Liverpool back in 1959.
The most recent meeting was at Anfield in October, with a brace from Sadio Mane along with goals from Mo Salah and Xherdan Shaqiri giving Liverpool a 4-1 win.
Team News
Cardiff City are sweating on the fitness of midfielder Harry Arter, who suffered an injury in the recent win at Brighton, but should have a full strength squad to choose from aside from that.
Liverpool do not appear to have any new injury problems and will likely field the same starting XI as at Chelsea last weekend.
Betting Odds
As expected, Liverpool are a clear betting favourite to pick up victory in this match.
Betfair have the visitors priced at 1/5 in the match result market, with Cardiff a massive 15/1 to win at home. The draw is priced at 11/2 and there’s only one result the bookmakers foresee from this fixture.
With the odds so clearly in Liverpool’s favour it may pay to look elsewhere for some decent value here.
Liverpool have scored thirteen goals in three Premier League matches against Cardiff, an average of over four a match, so the 1/1 on the visitors to score over 2.5 goals looks decent value and it’s also 5/2 for them to score over 3.5.
As for goalscorers in the match, it may pay to back Sadio Mane to get on the scoresheet. The Senegalese forward has scored six in the last seven league matches and netted twice against Cardiff in the last meeting. He’s priced at 10/11 to score anytime, 9/2 to net two or more, and 7/2 to score first.