Wolverhampton Wanderers VS Norwich City Match Prediction
2020-02-23
14:00:00
Wolverhampton Wanderers
VS
Norwich City
Our Prediction Tip
Wolverhampton Wanderers will win this match.
2020-02-2314:00:00 Wolverhampton Wanderers will win this match.
In their first meeting since a Championship fixture in February 2018, prior to Wolves’ Premier League return, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side won 2-1 at Carrow Road when they met just before Christmas. Todd Cantwell opened the scoring for Norwich, but Romain Saiss and Raul Jimenez scored after the break to earn a 2-1 win.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ strong season continued in mid-week, with a 4-0 home win against Espanyol underlining their Europa League credentials.
In the Premier League, they have kept clean sheets against Leicester City and Manchester United to draw their last two matches and remain in the hunt for European qualification.
The dropped points in those two drawn matches have left them a few points adrift of the teams above them, but a home win against Norwich will keep them on track.
Norwich, meanwhile, have improved in recent weeks but defeat to Liverpool means they remain six points adrift at the bottom of the table.
They have found the step-up to the Premier League too much this season and just four wins all season – of which only one has come away from home – tells its own story.
They have only scored 24 goals too, of which they have relied heavily on Teemu Pukki to provide them too.
All of that adds up to, despite their improved recent form, a likely difficult match away to Wolves and another potentially difficult result to take.
Only one team (Aston Villa) have conceded more than Norwich this season too, despite their recent defensive improvement.
And if Diogo Jota and co can continue the form they showed in mid-week, that is an ominous statistic for Norwich fans.
Wolves want to remain in the hunt for more European football next season, and a home win against the Canaries would get them firmly back on track in that regard.
Wolves are odds-on favourites to win at home to Norwich on Sunday and can be backed at 8/15 with Ladbrokes to win.
Norwich’s poor attacking record and Wolves’ recent run of clean sheets means you can bet against both teams to score at 20/23 with Betfair.
Wolves to win to nil returns 6/4 with Bet365, meanwhile.
After his three goals in mid-week, Diogo Jota is 13/5 with Ladbrokes to score at any time. Raul Jimenez is still favourite, however, and can be backed at evens with Betfair and Paddy Power.
Wolverhampton Wanderers got back to winning ways in style in mid-week and they will be confident of carrying that form into this match against struggling Norwich.
Ruben Vinagre remains sidelined but even he is close to a return as Nuno Espirito Santo looks forward to otherwise fielding a full-strength side.
Raul Jimenez – Scored Wolves’ last three league goas – two against Southampton and one against Liverpool – and now has 11 in the league this season.
Ruben Neves – Central to Wolves’ success, with his dictating of the tempo in the middle of the park and his brilliant range of passing.
Diogo Jota – Scored his second consecutive Europa League hat-trick in mid-week and the forward is likely to retain his starting place for this league game as a result.
Goalless draws either side of the winter break, against Manchester United and Leicester City, were followed up by Thursday’s superb showing in the Europa League. Diogo Jota grabbed a hat-trick and Ruben Neves scored the other in a brilliant 4-0 home win against Espanyol.
Sam Byram has suffered a potentially long-term hamstring injury, which will take at least a few weeks to recover from. Timm Klose (knee) is already out until May but Norwich have otherwise got a full squad to choose from.
Teemu Pukki – The Finnish striker has netted 11 times so far this season to lead the Canaries’ goalscoring charts.
Todd Cantwell – Scored the opening goal when these teams last met as part of an encouraging start to life in the Premier League.
Christoph Zimmermann – Leading the Norwich defence to some improved form in recent weeks, including two clean sheets in their last four league games.
Norwich’s form has improved slightly in all fairness, winning two of their last five matches, drawing 0-0 at Newcastle United and then pushing runaway leaders Liverpool close as they lost 1-0 at home to the Reds last weekend.
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