Watford v Leicester: Visitors to ensure Wembley date

Leicester travel to Hertfordshire with a slender advantage to defend in the semi final of their play-off tussle.

David Nugent’s instinctive finish separates the sides in the pursuit of Premier League football, though his team are 21/10 underdogs to finish the job at Vicarage Road.

Gianfranco Zola and his band of borrowed talent are 5/4 to overturn the deficit, while the draw, the outcome in three of the final six regular-season Foxes games, is a 12/5 punt.

The return of Troy Deeney to partner Championship Player of the Year Matej Vydra in attack will be crucial to the Hornets’ chances. The 19-goal hitman was sorely missed at the King Power Stadium as Watford spurned some good chances to score and he can be backed at 5/1 – making him joint-favourite with Vydra – to break the deadlock.

After a tentative first leg with neither side particularly going all out, goals look to be on the menu when the pair lock horns again.

Watford beat Nigel Pearson’s men 2-1 home and away earlier in the campaign, while 13 of their previous 15 on their own patch have yielded more than 2.5 goals.

Each of Leicester’s last five to close the regular campaign also harvested enough strikes to see this barrier crossed, four of which managed to smash the 3.5-goal mark too. Over 2.5 goals to be scored in this a banker and, at 17/20, it cannot be ignored, while over 3.5 offers taste at 2/1.

Backing both teams to notch looks to be a free money punt at 4/6 and, if this is the case, which it almost certainly will be, Leicester must be fancied to progress to Wembley. The price of 4/9 that says they will doesn’t seem the fairest but, logically, it’s a sound bet to go for.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date