Aston Villa vs Derby County 27/05/19

27 May 2019

A long-awaited spectacle at the Wembley Stadium will see Aston Villa and Derby County battling it out for the Premier League promotion.

The Lions have broken into the Championship play-off final for the second season in a row with a thrilling penalty shootout victory over West Bromwich Albion. The Villans have defeated WBA 2-1 in the first leg of their semi-final tie but have suffered a 1-0 loss in the return leg that eventually sent the tie to penalties. Even though they’ve endured mixed fortunes over their past four competitive outings (W1, D1, L2), the Claret & Blue Army have been going from strength to strength in Championship from early March to late April, racking up an impressive ten-game winning run. Notably, five of those wins have seen Aston Villa beat their rivals to nil, with Dean Smith’s men restricting their opponents to a maximum of one goal in the remaining five.

Meanwhile, the Rams have pulled off a remarkable second-leg comeback against Leeds United to book their place in the play-off final. Although they’ve suffered a narrow 1-0 loss at home in the first leg, Franck Lampard’s men have stunned the Whites at Elland Road, clinching a sensational 4-2 victory. An encouraging fact for Derby is that they’ve scored 2+ match goals in six of their last eight competitive outings, failing to find the net only once in the process. But, the Rams have secured just three clean sheets in the same period, allowing over 1.5 match goals once though. Additionally, Derby have lost both H2H clashes with Aston Villa this season, conceding seven goals while struggling to score a single goal.