Cardiff v Sunderland

Cardiff City vs Sunderland Preview

Cardiff City will play host to Sunderland at their Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday lunchtime as The Bluebirds look to make a decent start to their new Championship campaign after a fairly disappointing end to last season's campaign which ended by losing their last two games of last term, while Sunderland will begin a new era under former French Ligue 1 side Lorient manager, Regis Le Bris, who is tasked with guiding the Black Cats to a possible play-off spot.

Cardiff City finished last season sitting in a mid-table position of 12th place in the Championship final standings and some 11 points adrift of the top six which is hardly surprising given The Bluebirds' poor finish to last term.

Following a promising looking four-match winning streak, the Welsh hosts lost six of their subsequent nine games in the season run-in which included picking up three wins against Coventry City, Birmingham City and Southampton respectively, while three of these six defeats were on home soil at their Cardiff City Stadium.

Home defeats at the hands of Sunderland 2-0, Hull City 3-1 and Middlesbrough 4-1 towards the end of last season suggests Cardiff City manager, Erol Bulut, could have his hands full in whipping his new side into shape in the early stages of this upcoming season.

Sunderland produced an even more disappointing campaign though last season in the Championship as the Black Cats eventually had to settle for a place in the lower half of the Championship table in 16th place and just six points above the relegation zone.

A new manager in the shape of Frenchman Regis Le Bris will bring renewed hope for the north-east club in their ambitions of returning to the Premier League but they too suffered a poor finish to last season's campaign, losing each of their last three games of last term on the trot.

Defeats at the hands of Millwall, Watford and most concerning of all, a 2-0 loss at home to relegation threatened Sheffield Wednesday handed Sunderland their worst league finish in the English second tier since finishing bottom of the table in the 2017/18 season.

Accordingly, former boss, Mike Dodds, has departed and new coach Le Bris must now inspire and cajole a Sunderland outfit who could muster only two wins from their final 15 league matches of last season's campaign.

A glimmer of hope saw Sunderland pick up both of these wins on the road with victories at Cardiff City and West Brom but these were swamped by being handed 10 defeats in the process as well - 11 of these last 15 matches also resulted in Under 2.5 goals as well.

Cardiff City v Sunderland Verdict

Each of the last four meetings have resulted in Under 2.5 goals and another low-scoring affair looks likely here too.

Therefore, our main bet will be Under 2.5 goals @ 1.65

Other side bets worth considering:

Sunderland win @ 2.45

Correct Score: Sunderland 1-0 @ 7.00