Alan Brazil shares Southampton v West Brom prediction live on talkSPORT
Alan Brazil makes Southampton the favourites to overcome West Brom and reach the play-off final, but says it will be a “tight” contest.
The sides are locked at 0-0 heading into Friday’s (17 May) second leg at St Mary’s following a goalless opening 90 minutes last weekend.
Southampton finished 12 points better off than Albion during the regular season, and Brazil is backing them to advance – just.
“This is tight tonight,” he said live on talkSPORT [17 May, 06:56am]. “West Brom defend well but I make Southampton favourites, although not by much.”
West Brom can keep Premier League dream alive
This contest could not be poised any finer on the back of Sunday’s (12 May) first leg at The Hawthorns.
Some may well see that as a missed opportunity to strike a blow on the Saints, much in the same was as we saw in Norwich City vs Leeds United.
The bottom line is that Southampton are indeed favourites to advance to Wembley, where Leeds await – that cannot be disputed.
Southampton were better across the course of the regular campaign, as reflected by the Championship table.
However, form goes out of the window in the play-offs, as they say, and Carlos Corberan is an expert at setting his sides out to do a job.
If Albion can keep it tight and stop Southampton from playing their game, there is every reason the Baggies can keep their Premier League dream alive.
In other West Brom news, Don Goodman has predicted whether Corberan could leave Albion if they miss out on promotion.
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