What can you say about Coventry’s last minute of football? Despite a possible handball, Ben Wilson’s last-gasp equalizer was allowed to stand against Blackburn. This simultaneously kept Coventry’s hopes of a top six berth very much in sight, and prevented Blackburn the chance to get away from the chasing pack. There are few ways as potent as a last-minute equalizer, especially by a goalkeeper, especially against a positional rival, to energize a fan base, and a club as a whole. Believers in momentum would certainly suggest that the Sky Blues would enter this match in great spirits and would use their impetus from last time out to take the game to their opponents. Blackburn largely nullified the Coventry attack on Wednesday night. Rovers did so by, first of all, retaining possession of the ball, something which Reading don’t tend to do very well on the whole, and then, secondly, using a lot of energy to regain the ball quickly. Again, this is not a normal trait of Reading’s, they have generally been a low-block, deep-lying team when out of possession. The point to discussing this is that although Coventry were creatively stifled on Wednesday, this probably won’t be the case in this match. Overall, since 1st February, Coventry have amassed the second highest xG in the Championship, behind Middlesbrough. This proves that they are able to create enough chances to win matches and in Reading they almost have the perfect opponent for this game. The Royals have a truly dreadful away record. No away win since 12th November at Hull, and in their last ten away matches they have lost eight and have managed an xG differential of -1.1xG per match, effectively conceding enough chances to expect to be a goal behind in every match on average. That is not a particularly healthy position to be in going to Coventry, who, themselves, are +0.3xG across their last 10 home matches. This would be greater but for spectacular collapses vs Norwich and Stoke.

Saturday evening’s clash between Lens and Monaco at Stade Bollaert promises to be a cracker, with Champions League football on the line as the Ligue 1 season approaches its climax. Although Lens are typically a tight team at home, look for this game to be a more open and exciting affair, with Monaco specialists at performing on the road. Lens come into this match off the back of a 3-1 loss at PSG that barely did their performance justice. Barring a 10-minute spell in the first half of that match, they were excellent, with a red card for Salis Abdul Samed changing the course of the match. Unfortunately for Lens, he is a key defensive player in their midfield and will be sorely missed for this game. That will open up attacking possibilities for Monaco. Lens, though, are strong offensively at home. They have 31 goals in 15 matches in front of what will be a loud and colourful home crowd, while they also boast one of the form strikers in the league in the form of Lois Openda. Monaco, meanwhile, have bags of attacking talent themselves, having scored at least two goals in each of their last four Ligue 1 matches. These have come against defences far softer than Lens’ but with the arrange of attacking options that they possess, it would almost be surprising if this were to be the first time they were shut out on the road this season. Backing both teams to score looks a strong bet.

Having lost just one of their last seven, Alessio Dionisi’s Sassuolo have put to shame those who were so quick to suggest that the Neroverdi might fall into Serie B after a slow first half of the season. On the road at Salernitana, they’ll be looking to build on their 1-0 win over Europa League semi-finalists Juventus last time out. Experienced ‘keeper, Andrea Consigli pulled off a number of stops to keep the Bianconeri out, and was named by some outlets as the Serie A Player of the Week for Matchday 30. Salernitana themselves are in an impressive unbeaten run. They haven’t lost any of their last seven, though the six most recent of those results have been draws against Sampdoria, AC Milan, Bologna, Spezia, Inter and Torino. While they’ve shown an ability to keep perceived better sides from taking three points from them, the dropped points against Ligurian pair Samp and Spezia suggest that something is still missing. Salernitana concede 1.40 per game at home while Sassuolo concede 1.80 per game on the road which has seen the visitors have 6/7 away games with BTTS since the World Cup. Salernitana have had BTTS in their last 5 games as well. The home side will be keen to get revenge for the 5-0 thumping they received earlier this season.

Sheffield Wednesday have rather spectacularly handed the impetus at the top of League One over to Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town in the last month or so, after being a very short price at one stage to win the league title. The Owls will most likely need to win all three of their remaining fixtures to have a chance of breaking back into the top two, trailing second-placed Ipswich by one point and Argyle by two, but having played one game more than the pair. Exeter City have picked up just two points from the last possible 18 on the road and have lost their last four on the bounce ahead of the weekend’s trip to Hillsborough. Gary Caldwell’s men have only scored twice in that run and are significantly weakened with Cheick Diabate, Demetri Mitchell, Jay Stansfield and Jevani Brown unavailable of late. Injuries to George Byers and Josh Windass have seen a clear drop-off in the Owls’ performances but they should be able to build on their midweek 2-1 win at Bristol Rovers to keep the pressure up on the top two.