Coventry City – Burnley

The guests will justify the role of favourites in the main confrontation of the round

With seven rounds to go in the Championship regular season, the intrigue in this division is through the roof. The two key centres of tension in the standings are the areas fighting for direct promotion and the play-offs. It is in these parts of the Championship that the clash of interests will take place on Saturday at the Coventry Building Stadium. The local club have long harboured ambitions of returning to the elite division, where they have not played for 24 years. In their quest for promotion, Coventry City have this season replaced long-serving head coach Mark Robins with Frank Lampard, who has yet to prove himself as a successful coach. At first this caused outrage amongst the fans, but now the most vocal critics have been silenced. Coventry are in fifth position and are seriously struggling to maintain their position in the play-off zone. Burnley left the Premier League last season, but quickly rebuilt and are now one of the three real contenders for direct promotion. And the maroon have been in third place for a good half of the season, watching Sheffield United and Leeds United move into the top flight. Of course, Burnley are no less motivated than their opponents, so a hard fought game in Coventry is to be expected. Bookmakers have identified the guests as favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 2.40 on their victory. Coventry City have played ten matches in the last two months in the Championship and FA Cup. In them, the sky-blues won six times and lost four times. These results allow the club to sit in fifth place with a two-point advantage over a whole group of pursuers. This means that any misfire can lead to relegation from the top-6 division. High responsibility for the result affects the game of the team, which last round lost Sheffield United (1-3) without a chance. Burnley plays under such pressure all season and successfully copes with it. "The Bordeaux" perform without fail in the style of "defence first - then everything else". The team practically does not concede and does not lose, but excessive caution does not allow them to break into the leaders. At the same time, the visitors deserve much more confidence for a bet than Lampard's charges.