Barnsley v Swansea City live stream, Sky Sports, Monday 17 May, 8.15pm BST
Barnsley and Swansea will both be looking to establish a first-leg lead when they meet in the Championship play-off semi-finals on Monday.
The Tykes have been the surprise package of the season, securing a fifth-place finish despite being tipped for a battle against the drop. Gerhard Struber led Barnsley to survival by the skin of their teeth last time, and then departed the club when they were just outside the bottom three in October. Struber left to take charge of the New York Red Bulls, and his replacement Valerien Ismael was tasked with keeping the team’s head above water.
He has done more than that. Ismael led Barnsley into mid-table in his first few months at the helm, before mounting a charge for the play-offs from mid-January onwards. Barnsley have lost just three of their last 21 games, and will have no fear going into the end-of-season tournament given they did not expect to be in the promotion mix at the start of the campaign.
While Barnsley made a poor start to 2020/21, Swansea came flying out of the traps. They were in the top two after 10 games and also occupied a place in the automatic promotion places in early February, when they beat Norwich 2-0 at the Liberty Stadium. A wobble set in subsequently, though, leaving Swansea 11 points adrift of second place by the end of the season.
Steve Cooper’s side did the double over Barnsley in the regular campaign, and that will give them some confidence ahead of their trip to Oakwell on Monday evening. Expectation could weigh heavily on Swansea shoulders, although a solid defence which breached fewer goals than their fellow play-off participants gives them a chance.
Barnsley will have to make do without the services of Ben Williams, but Ismael has no fresh injury concerns to deal with.
Swansea will be unable to call upon Tivonge Rushesha and Jordan Morris, but Steve Benda is closing in on a return to full fitness.
Kick-off is at 8.15pm BST and the game is being shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football in the UK. See below for watching details where you are.
Use a VPN to watch a Barnsley v Swansea City live stream from outside your country
If you’re on holiday or just simply out of the country, your domestic on-demand services won’t work – the broadcaster knows exactly where you are from your IP address. Your access to the game will be automatically blocked, which is annoying if you’ve paid a subscription fee and don't want to use an illegal, buffering stream that makes you miss another Jose Mourinho tantrum. And that's where we recommend ExpressVPN (more on which below).
All you need to do is get a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get beyond such aggravations (assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs). A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, meaning suppliers can’t work out where you are and what you’re doing. The info going to and from is entirely encrypted.
There are plenty of options out there, including:
