Cardiff City vs Barnsley

Cardiff City Stadium serves as a host venue to the 2021/22 Championship opener between Cardiff City and Barnsley.

Cardiff’s sluggish start to the 2020/21 season that included a return of just three wins from the opening ten Championship fixtures (D4, L3) eventually came back to haunt the Welsh outfit. Despite completing last season with a run of six league matches without losing (W2, D4), the home side failed to interfere in the play-off battle. A more promising start is more than welcome when you consider the ‘Bluebirds’ have lost the opening match in the last three domestic league campaigns, conceding over 1.5 goals on each occasion. If the 2020/21 season is an indicator, Cardiff fans may have to wait long to see their heroes get on the scoresheet, given that 31.82% of their last season’s Championship goals arrived on or beyond the 70th minute.

In the meantime, Barnsley’s 2020/21 season started with a whimper rather than a bang, but they managed to recover from an early shock to reach the play-off semi-finals. Having spent some portion of the early stage of last season in the relegation zone, the visitors will be looking for a better start this time around. Scoring the opening goal could put Barnsley in the driving seat to walk away from the Cardiff City Stadium unbeaten, considering they finished last season as one of only three sides not to lose a Championship match in which they broke the deadlock (W19, D5). Alarmingly, though, the ‘Tykes’ head into proceedings winless in their last 11 Championship curtain-raisers (D3, L8), including six defeats in a row.