Cambridge United vs. Wrexham prediction, where to watch, live stream: League One odds, lineups

Wrexham’s quest to earn a third successive promotion continues on Tuesday against Cambridge United, with the Welsh side favored to pick up another win in a match between two teams on opposite ends of the League One table.

The visitors are in the midst of yet another impressive season, something that is becoming commonplace four years after actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club. Wrexham enter Tuesday’s match in second place in League One, a spot that would earn them direct promotion to the Championship if they can hang onto a spot in the top two. Cambridge United are not expected to offer much of a challenge – they are 23rd in a 24 team league with just seven wins in 39 games this season.

Cambridge’s record is in stark contrast to Wrexham’s, who are 46 points ahead of the hosts before Tuesday’s game. The two teams have clearly had contrasting seasons, with their individual goal differences painting the picture by themselves – Wrexham’s goal differential stands at +24, while Cambridge’s is -26 heading into this matchup. Cambridge also head into Tuesday’s game on a seven game unbeaten run, which only adds to Wrexham’s reputation as the favorites.

Here’s what you need to know before tuning in.

How to watch and odds

• Date: Tuesday, April 1 | Time: 2:45 p.m.
• Location: Abbey Stadium — Cambridge, England
• Live stream: Paramount+
• Odds: Cambridge United +375; Draw +240; Wrexham -120

Last meeting

Wrexham hosted Cambridge in December in a back-and-forth game that ended with a 2-2 draw. Cambridge nabbed the game’s first goal through Elias Kachunga in the 20th minute, though James McClean scored Wrexham’s equalizer just seven minutes later. Wrexham then took the lead in the 66th minute courtesy of Steven Fletcher, but Dan Nlundulu’s 89th minute goal ensured each team would share the points.

What Cambridge United are saying

Cambridge sit firmly inside the relegation zone, five points outside of safety with seven games left in the season. Every single point will matter to Neil Harris’ side, no matter how unlikely it is that they would collect any, and they might be able to take some inspiration from December’s 2-2 draw in Wales. They are firmly focused on the present, though, which does not paint a rosy picture for Cambridge.

The hosts are coming off a 1-1 draw against Northampton Town on Saturday in which they had to come from behind after going down before the half-hour mark. Harris feels there’s room for improvement from Saturday’s first half performance and hopes to apply those lessons as soon as Tuesday as they plot out what they hope is a great escape.

“We were really poor first half,” Harris said after Saturday’s game, per Cambridge’s website. “It wasn’t what I want us to be in the sense of an aggressive Cambridge United and Neil Harris team – one that can play a little bit but also stand up to the fight. … But then I’ll end the negatives there. The second half was much more like it. There wasn’t always a lot of quality, but it was much more effective at times. My glass is half full because we’ve come back and got a point.”

What Wrexham are saying

The vibe is completely different for Wrexham, who have five wins in their last six and are plotting their path to the Championship. With seven games to go and just a two point cushion in between them and third place Wycombe Wanderers, automatic promotion to England’s second division is not a guarantee at this point but it’s hard to quash chatter about the possibility of a record-breaking season. If all goes well, Wrexham would be the first team in England’s top five divisions to earn three successive promotions – the question now is if they can handle the pressure.

Wrexham are choosing to keep the mood as calm as possible with the final weeks of the season coming up.

“We’re aware of it but it can’t be a daunting thing, it has to be something that we rise to, something we are excited by and fuelled by,” Ollie Rathbone said, per the BBC. “We know it could be very, very special.”

Instead, they plan to call upon the experience that they boast, especially in comparison to their counterparts in League One. A handful of Wrexham players – including McClean, Fletcher and Rodriguez – are players in their mid-to-late 30s with Premier League reps, and each has played a sizable role in this season’s success. The 28-year-old Rathbone said their experience goes a long way.

“Winning breeds winning and when you come into an environment where people are used to it, it makes a huge difference,” he added. “You can sense it after a game when some of the senior players and coaching staff are simply ‘well done, onto the next one.’ There’s no over celebrating, there’s no pats on the back, it’s ‘well done – but that’s what we came here to do, now let’s go.'”

Predicted lineup

Cambridge United: Nathan Bishop, James Gibbons, Michael Morrison, Kelland Watts, Scott Malone, Paul Digby, Ben Stevenson, Elias Kachunga, Josh Stokes, James Brophy, Dom Ballard

Wrexham: Arthur Okonkwo, Max Cleworth, Eoghan O’Connell, Lewis Brunt, Ryan Longman, George Dobson, Matty James, Oliver Rathbone, James McClean, Jay Rodriguez, Sam Smith

Player to watch

Sam Smith, Wrexham: Considering the contrasting form of these teams, Tuesday’s game feels like a good chance for Wrexham to rack up the goals, especially since their goal differential lags behind third place Wycombe and will be crucial if tiebreakers are needed to decide the final standings. That’s where Sam Smith should come in handy.

The 27-year-old Smith leads the way for Wrexham with 14 goals in League One this season, just four behind the league’s leading goalscorer, Wycombe’s Richard Kone. It’s one of the greatest goalscoring seasons for the Manchester United academy product, who joined the Welsh club in January from Reading on a club record transfer fee of $1.2 million, per ESPN. He has just two league goals for Wrexham so far but could add to his account on Tuesday as the team inches closer to their goal of playing in the Championship.

Storyline to watch

Wrexham’s promotion hunt: Wrexham’s quick rise up the English soccer pyramid may have seemed improbable at first but with just seven games left in the League One season, it is time to start talking about the likelihood of the team playing in the Championship just a few short months from now.

The Welsh side have breezed through League One with the help of aging but talented players like Fletcher and Rodriguez, who are amongst the most high-profile players in England’s third division, which is not known for its star quality. The introduction of those players has added an intriguing layer to Wrexham’s story strictly from a sporting perspective – it’s a strategy few League One teams have utilized, likely because of the different financial backing that Wrexham have compared to their counterparts. It was not necessarily hard to anticipate that such a bet would work, but now their season will come down to the intangibles of whether or not this group can handle the pressure of making history.

Tuesday’s game against Cambridge, then, offers a fascinating test to prove that the doubts have not crept in just yet. Wrexham are the obvious favorites by every metric, even if December’s meeting demonstrated that Cambridge have the ability to keep things competitive, and so the visitors should be able to pick up another three points with little fuss. If they experience some hiccups along the way, though, that could offer the perfect opening for Wycombe to sneak into second place and make Wrexham’s promotion campaign slightly more complicated in the final weeks of the season.

Prediction

With or without nerves, Wrexham have more than enough to pick up a fairly straightforward win on Tuesday. Expect their veterans and their lesser-known talents to contribute in equal measure and keep the momentum going, especially ahead of some more challenging matches this spring. Pick: Cambridge United 0, Wrexham 3

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