The Championship play-offs start with a semi-final between surprise packages, then a tie of sleeping giants. This preview is all you need.
It’s Championship play-off time. The regular season is over and the clubs finishing between third and sixth are just three games away from a place in the Premier League. What lies ahead for the combatants is a two legged semi-final where teams are quickly required to make the switch from league to tournament football mode. The tired cliche of the play-offs being a ‘lottery’ pays huge disrespect to those who win them: this is no game of luck and only the strongest, smartest and most resilient tend to triumph.
Luton v Huddersfield
Semi-final number one sees Luton take on Huddersfield. This is the surprise tie comprising two sides who’ve really taken the league by storm and are most definitely punching above their weight.
Luton have been on an upward trajectory for a long time and after a close call in their first Championship season, they finished an impressive 12th in their second. I suspected they would climb a place or two but did not foresee a jump all the way up to sixth and couldn’t commend Luton enough on their play-off finish.
Huddersfield is an even bigger surprise. If Luton’s recent trend has been positive, Huddersfield have been heading down since that first season in the Premier League back in 2018. Abject relegation in 2019 was followed by 18th and 20th-placed finishes in the Championship. This season, though, the Terriers have skyrocketed up 17 places to finish third with an 82-point total – a frankly brilliant achievement.
As with most two-legged ties, there is always an emphasis on making sure you’re still in the second game. We can expect a certain amount of pragmatism, but Luton are pretty up and at ’em in the first portions of their home matches. Mystery is abound whether we’ll see a return to fitness for top scorer Elijah Adebayo, but the Hatters’ injury woes have lifted somewhat…
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