Championship Playoffs, Final, Saturday, 24.05.2025 at 16:00
Wembley is calling! England’s national stadium in the capital London will once again crown the best of the Championship playoffs this year, the third team to compete in the Premier League in 2025/26.
In my Sheffield United vs. Sunderland prediction, I’ll tell you why I think it’s going to be a damn close playoff final with a lot of tactical play – so I’m going with a bet on “under 2.5 goals.”
Who will follow Leeds and Burnley into the Premier League? After some exciting games, the Championship playoff final is set, with Sunderland facing Sheffield. Is there a clear favorite at first glance?
Sheffield finished the regular season with 90 points, Sunderland with 76, which is a significant difference. Our bookmakers with PayPal have clearly not forgotten that.
With promotion odds of 1.68 to 2.05, the Blades’ favorite status is shaky, and the home team is also narrowly ahead with 2.30 to 2.95 for a win this weekend.
Sheffield clearly prevailed against Bristol in the playoff semifinals, winning twice 3-0. An extremely confident overall performance, considering that they had only won two of their last seven games.
I was particularly surprised by the offensive output. In 46 rounds, the team only managed to score more than two goals three times, but now they’ve done it twice in a row.
Six times, including the playoff matches, the 3.5-goal mark was only broken. In 13 of the last 16 games, Sheffield kept a clean sheet in the first half, which is also very interesting.
Is it worth looking at the away record? After all, the playoff final will not be played at home at Bramall Arena, but at Wembley. Before the semi-final, there were three defeats in four away games, but now the team seems to have picked itself up again.
What about playoff experience? The Blades last appeared in the final in 2009, losing 1-0 to Burnley. In 2003, they lost 3-0 to Wolverhampton, and in 1997, Crystal Palace proved too good for them, winning 1-0.
Three appearances, three defeats – that’s not what the fans wanted to hear before their trip to London. 1-0 at home, 1-2 away – the two regular season matches against Sunderland were anything but clear-cut.
Since 2005, the two teams have only met seven times, so Sheffield’s five wins are nice, but they shouldn’t be overrated. What’s the situation at Sunderland, and what makes them the slight underdogs?
First of all, I’m looking at the history books and searching for appearances in the playoff final. The last time they played at Wembley was in 1998, when Sunderland lost to Charlton Athletic in a bitter penalty shootout.
The trip to London in 1990 also failed to produce a good result, with a 0-1 defeat to Swindon. The Black Cats and the Blades can shake hands, but they know that there can be no defeat on either side.
Sunderland prevailed against Coventry City in the semi-finals, but their progress was very shaky. 2-1 and 1-1 after extra time, it couldn’t have been more exciting.
With five defeats in a row, the team somehow managed to qualify for the playoffs, but they didn’t really convince me here either. They have scored a measly five goals in their last eleven matches.
They have scored a total of 58 goals in 46 games (excluding the playoff semi-final), which is not a lot. With nine away wins, it doesn’t look like the team feels particularly comfortable away from home.
Sunderland or Sheffield, who will prove they have the stronger nerves on Saturday in what is sure to be a packed Wembley Stadium? In my opinion, the Blades are clearly in better form, as they showed in the semifinals.
The Black Cats have been in crisis for several weeks now and are hardly scoring any goals. But I also noticed defensive weaknesses, or to put it positively, a lack of efficiency, on Sheffield’s side.
That’s why I expect both teams to go into the game with a fair amount of nervousness and neither wanting to make the first mistake. So I’m going with the following tip:
There won’t be more than 2.5 goals!
