[Championship]: Situation in the league.

Hello my dear friends! Yesterday, England repeated its achievement of a decade ago, namely the passage of all four teams participating in the Champions League in the quarter finals. What we congratulate her on. Meanwhile, yesterday passed the next round of the Championship, where now in full swing the championship race is no worse than in the Premier League. So, plunge into the second division of England and look at the situation that has developed there at the moment.

The leaders

Nine rounds to the finish lead three clubs. Norwich City who has taken the first place has not been defeated for the last five rounds, the team scored a decent move and literally beats up its rivals in the class. In excellent form attack, Emiliano Buendia three consecutive tour does not leave the field without effective action, Teemu Pukki still is the best scorer of the Championship, he has 24 goals scored. “Canaries” do not give up without a fight and very rarely lose points, in the remaining rounds of the Top 6 they will be confronted only by Middlesbrough, so if they do not make mistakes and do not lose their typed form, they will have a ticket to the Premier League.

Leeds United, who is running second, also scored a good shape in the last rounds. The “peacocks” had problems with both defense and attack, but apparently Marcelo Bielsa found an approach to his players and in the last three rounds they scored three victories over not very simple opponents (West Bromwich 4-0, Bristol City 1-0 , Reading 3-0) without missing a single goal. However, this period, when the team wins a number of convincing victories, has already been in this season with Leeds, then came the decline in the game, and quite serious. Before the finish of the season there are not so many matches left and Leeds will have enough strength and motivation to finally get to the top division with confidence no one can say.

The third participant in the so-called champion race is Sheffield United. In the past 10 rounds, the “blades” suffered only one defeat, from last year’s Premier League member, Swansea City, having won a guest victory over West Bromwich (0-1), a victory over Middlesbrough (1-0) and not losing to Norwich City (2 -2). The team wins without their leaders, wins a confident victory playing in the minority and clearly makes it clear that it will fight for the entrance to the Premier League with all its might. In the upcoming tour on Saturday, Sheffield will play as a guest with its closest competitor - Leeds United and it will be an exciting match.

Fight for the playoffs

And now briefly about those teams that can compete for the third ticket to the Premier League. Of course, if someone from the first trio turns out to be weaker, he will be a clear favorite of the playoffs, but I would single out West Bromwich Albion among those teams that could be a serious competitor. “Throstles” flew out to the Championship last year and under the leadership of Darren Moore almost the entire season went through, however, it cannot be called stable, the team periodically gave out a vague game for which it paid with a departure from Top-3. Recent results seriously alerted the owners of the club and they can be understood. Two defeats from two direct competitors (defeat at home from Sheffield 0-1 and from Leeds 0-4) plus a home draw with the last team of the tournament, which at the same time inflicted more than twenty shots on the opponent's goal and only miraculously snatched the victory, overflowed patience. Under the leadership of James Shan, the team in the last round defeated Swansea City and restored hope to their fans.

Middlesbrough has long lost hope of a direct exit to the Premier League. Having started the season well, the team was gradually slowing down and now runs the risk of completely flying out of the Top 6. In the last match, the team missed the opportunity to score points. By taking the lead in the match with Preston, the central defender of the team earned the removal, immediately after that Middlesbrough missed the goal, and in the end Preston finished off his opponent by scoring the second goal. Thus, Preston North End, having issued an impressive series of 11 matches without defeat, has good chances to get into the playoff zone, but Middlesbrough is in danger of leaving it. Also risk getting out of the fight Derby County and Bristol City.

The team of Frank Lampard has been extremely weak lately, a large number of injured and the lack of a leader in the attack directly affected the results of Derby. Much of the team is built on the individual actions of individual players, and at least it brings the team a few points, but whether it is enough to finish in the top six is ​​not known. In Bristol City, everything is much worse, two main goalkeepers were injured, there are injuries among defense players. The attack of the team in bad shape and the calendar does not bode well for the team: ahead Sheffield United, West Brom, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa. All these teams are fighting for the playoffs and in much better shape than Bristol.

Aston Villa, thanks to a good game in the previous rounds, has returned to the number of applicants for participation in the playoffs. So far, everything is going well for the team from Birmingham, there are not the most difficult rivals ahead and everything now depends only on the players themselves.

Outsiders

With a probability of 99.9%, Ipswich Town will leave the Championship this season. Certainly the team does not give up, but they fail to score more than one goal per game. The team takes points from opponents with not the best defense or simply “drained of blood” by a large number of injured and is now extremely dangerous for any league team. To make them company in the First League can Bolton going six points higher than the last place. "Trotters" periodically give "signs of life", but it will be extremely difficult for them to get out of the relegation zone and if this happens only a miracle is called. But the third team that left the Championship could be one of these clubs: Rotherham United, Wigan Athletic, Reading and Millwall. Almost all of these teams have 36 points in the asset (with the exception of Millwall, they have 37 points) and only by additional indicators, Rotherham now occupies 22 place and the calendar does not favor them. In the next matches, they will have to play with teams leading an active fight for the championship and for getting into the playoffs, but this does not mean that the Millers can already be sent to the League One. The championship is a very unpredictable tournament and can still change radically.

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