The Championship: Leicester City vs Cardiff City Odds and Betting Preview

LEICESTER, UK - Championship underachievers Leicester City (13th) host high-flying Cardiff City (fourth) to the Kingpower Stadium this Saturday afternoon hoping to begin a belated drive towards the play-offs. Despite their respective league positions, Leicester City are favorites for the game, best priced at 27/20 (bet £20 to make £27 profit) with Ladbrokes. A draw is best priced at 12/5 with Skybet and Cardiff can be backed at best odds of 12/5 with BetVictor.

Shocked by Blackpool in a 3-1 home defeat last week, Cardiff remain just two points off the automatic play-off places as the race for automatic promotion really hots up. Leicester also suffered a surprise defeat at the weekend, at the hands of Brighton, but Foxes boss Nigel Pearson has remained optimistic about his team's play-off opportunities.

Despite being in 13th place in the division, such is the competitive nature of the league, that Leicester are just eight points off the play-off places and with the squad they have it would be unwise to overlook their play-off credentials with over a quarter of the season left to play.

In the total goals market, over 2.5 goals is priced at 11/10 with Boyle Sports and under 2.5 goals is priced at 8/11 with bet365. 53.3% of Leicester's home games have gone under 2.5 goals and 73.3% of Cardiff's away games have involved fewer than 2.5 goals.

Leicester hot shot Jermaine Beckford is the bookies favourite to open the scoring, priced at 6/1 with BetVictor. In the same market, Foxes top scorer David Nugent is best priced at 6/1 with Stan James, Scotland international Kenny Miller is priced at 7/1 with bet365 and Rob Earnshaw can be backed at best odds of 8/1 with Ladbrokes to open the scoring today.

News that Jermaine Beckford's red card against Brighton has been overturned will please Leicester boss Nigel Pearson as the rest of his attacking options are limited due to injury. Darius Vassell, Martin Waghorn and Jeffrey Schlupp have all been laid low with knocks. Aston Villa loanee Nathan Delfouneso is also struggling with an ankle injury but the rest of Pearson's first choice XI should be available.

In the correct score market, a 1-1 draw is priced at 6/1 with Blue Square, a 2-0 win for Leicester is priced at 10/1 with Stan James and a 1-0 win for Nigel Pearson's men is priced at 7/1 with Coral. A repeat of the goalless draw from when the sides met earlier in the season is priced at 9/1 with Skybet and a 1-0 win for the Bluebirds is priced at 9/1 with Coral.

Cardiff manager Malky Mackay will be hoping to be able to call on Mark Hudson and Filip Kiss for the Npower Championship trip to Leicester. Hudson has not featured for the Bluebirds since the 3-2 victory over Portsmouth on January 21 because of a calf strain, while Kiss missed last week's 3-1 home defeat to Blackpool.

Darcy Blake is also pushing for a recall to the defence after last weekend's disappointment at the hands of Blackpool, while Kadeem Harris - signed from Wycombe in the January transfer window - could make his first appearance for the club after failing to come off the bench last time out.

The game is scheduled to kick-off at 15:00 GMT.

Leicester City vs Cardiff City Match Odds
Leicester City vs Cardiff City Over/Under Odds
Leicester City vs Cardiff City First Goalscorer Odds
Leicester City vs Cardiff City Correct Score Odds