Cardiff City boss on Sheffield Wednesday's ‘bizarre circumstances’ ahead of opening clash

Cardiff City manager, Neil Harris, says Sheffield Wednesdays’ situation is ‘bizarre’ given the 12-point deduction as the two teams prepare to lock horns on the opening day of the Championship.
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The Owls will face Cardiff away from home on September 12 as the 2020/21 league season gets underway, and Harris admits that he’s still unsure whether or not they’ve been handed a good start to the campaign or not.

While Garry Monk’s Wednesday face the Bluebirds, Watford, Bristol City, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City as their opening fixtures, Cardiff have got SWFC, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End.

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Ahead of that opening game, Harris told his club’s official website, “I think it is an exciting day for everybody. It’s Sheffield Wednesday for us, which will offer a stern test. It is bizarre circumstances for them, starting on -12 but they have an experienced manager, who knows these parts very well from his time at Swansea.

“You don’t always know what to expect on opening day. Garry’s teams are always organised. They finished last season in a 3-5-2 formation and that will be interesting to see whether they stick to that.

"You look at the fixtures. You look at Sheffield Wednesday at home and Forest away and it goes on and on. You try and work out if it is a good start? Is it not? What’s Christmas like? What’s Easter like?

“Overall, you just think: ‘what a brilliant league. What a brilliant league. We’ve got a couple of weeks of pre-season first to look at ourselves.”

Sheffield Wednesday will face Cardiff City on the opening day of the 2020/21 season. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)Sheffield Wednesday will face Cardiff City on the opening day of the 2020/21 season. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
Sheffield Wednesday will face Cardiff City on the opening day of the 2020/21 season. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
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Wednesday haven’t beaten Cardiff since a 1-0 home victory back in 2017, and haven’t won away there since 2007, however the head-to-head is very close with the Owls winning 26 and the Welsh club winning 27 of the 71 meetings since their first clash in 1920 (Cardiff won that one 1-0).

Before that encounter, though, Monk’s side will head off to Loughborough University for a preseason camp where they will face Leicester City in a friendly on August 29th.

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