Coventry City v Sunderland: Sky Blues should shine under the Friday night sky | OneFootball

EFL Championship

Frank Lampard is looking to take Coventry City into the Premier League

Ryan Deeney looks ahead to the EFL Championship play-off clash between Coventry City and Sunderland, a match that means a little more than the promotion on the line...

Coventry City v SunderlandFriday 9th May, 20:00Live on Sky Sports

Are Sunderland nine points better than Coventry?

On paper, this is 5th place hosting 4th place in the first leg of the EFL Championship play-offs, an opportunity for the lesser performing side to host the better performing side before having to take them on at their place.

There is some truth in that.

For much of this season, Sunderland found themselves on the coattails of Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United in the race for automatic promotion, being the first of the quartet to fall away around March time.

Coventry City, meanwhile, have always had their eyes focused on securing a top-six finish. That took them to the final day and a shoot-out with perennial Championship foes Middlesbrough with Frank Lampard getting the better of former England team-mate Michael Carrick to secure 5th place and a shot at promotion.

Nine points separated the two clubs, who have a long-standing rivalry dating back to the 1970's, come the final whistle last Saturday but the form books and narrative tell a completely different story heading into the all-important post-season lottery that is the play-offs.

You can't win anything with kids

Regis Le Bris and his young Sunderland took the league by storm early doors, winning nine of their first 12 and their refusal to lose football matches was taking them some way into the season with an opportunity: by matchday 30 they were just five points behind the leaders.

But a young side was beginning to fall short and back-to-back defeats against Leeds United and Hull City all but killed their chances of promotion. Any remaining life was wiped away by a 3-0 thumping at the hands of their opponents this Friday.

Why? Everybody will have their reasons but key details appear to be a lack of depth - even with changes made over recent weeks, Sunderland have seen eight players play 75% of minutes on offer - and age - just three of the 18 players to start more than four matches are over the age of 25.

Little to play for. Tired legs. The Black Cats have ended the season in awful form, scoring just four goals in their final ten and failing to create at least 1xG in their last seven. At least their defensive form hasn't been awful, conceding more than 1xG in just four of their last 11. However, one of those was in a 3-0 loss at the CBS Arena and is further evidence that turning things around at this stage of the season against some of the best the Championship has to offer isn't going to be easy.

Coventry one of the league's best in 2025

Lampard was appointed on 28th November 2024. Since then, Coventry City have been the 4th best team in the league, nine points clear of their midweek opposition.

It isn't a fluke that Coventry have managed to turn around a disappointing start to the season into a potential promotion campaign. Their underlying numbers under Mark Robins were excellent and a change in the dugout has brought about an extra focus on getting the finer details right at both ends - the explosion of both Ephron Mason-Clark and Jack Rudoni a testament to that.

Their great form slowed on the whole towards the end of the season but not their home form, where they collected seven wins from their last eight including big wins against Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough. Their only loss was against Burnley, a game they created marginally the better chances in.

One thing to bear in mind heading into this is that first leg play-off matches are generally less chaotic affairs with the second leg firmly in mind. Coventry have seen under 2.5 goals in five of their last six league matches and under 3.5 in eight of their last ten, as well as seven of their last eight at home.

Recommended bets

Back Coventry City to win and under 3.5 goals @ 9/5