Middlesbrough v Leeds: Boro backed to avoid defeat | OneFootball

EFL Championship

Middlesbrough are finding form

Leeds have slipped out of the automatic promotion positions and now face a tricky task away at in-form Middlesbrough. Betfair writer Mark O'Haire is backing Boro to pick up a positive result...

Middlesbrough v LeedsTuesday April 8, 20:00Live on Sky Sports

Middlesbrough cement top-six position

Middlesbrough gave their play-off hopes a massive boost as they eased to a 2-0 win at Blackburn on Friday to move up to fifth. Boro got off to a flier in eight hapless defensive minutes for Rovers - Tommy Conway's sensational strike opened the scoring inside 90 seconds and Samuel Iling-Junior's deflected effort doubling the advantage soon after.

Michael Carrick's men had a flurry of chances in the second half to put the game to bed but were unable to add to their scoreline, though the Teessiders were rarely threatened at Ewood Park as they picked up a fifth league success in seven matches to sit one point inside the top-six as the Championship campaign turns for home with six games remaining.

Analysing the encounter post-match, Carrick said: "Every game you try to go out and do the right things. It was the ideal start. It put us in a really good spot. We never really totally settled and I thought the boys coped with it really well in seeing it out and I was just as happy with the defending as I was with the whole team. A deserved three points overall."

Leeds slide out of automatic promotion places

Daniel James' fine strike rescued a point for Leeds at relegation-threatened Luton on Saturday as the Whites missed a chance to claim top spot in the Championship. The Hatters had taken an early lead, but James' moment of quality before the half-hour mark drew the visitors level and Manor Solomon missed a great chance to win the game late on for Leeds.

Daniel Farke's side have now drawn three successive league matches and only won once in six games to fall out of the automatic promotion places. The under-pressure Leeds manager bemoaned his side's defending post-match with the Yorkshire giants having now conceded the opening goal in each of their past four away days, hampering their top-two hopes.

Farke said, "It's always difficult to concede first, it's a problem for us. I would like to be in the lead at some point in an away game, it would make our lives a bit easier. You can have wishes and dreams, but they can't all happen in some periods of the season, so we just have to have reality, dig in and grind it out, and this was a hard-fought point for us."

Oppose Leeds at odds-on

Middlesbrough have not enjoyed recent meetings with Leeds, losing each of their last five Championship dates against the Whites, conceding at least three goals in four of those fixtures. Boro have also been beaten in their last two Riverside Stadium showdowns against Leeds; however, they've only once lost three successive home games against the visitors.

Middlesbrough 4.50 are just W1-D2-L6 when facing top-six rivals, though Boro arrive in fine form (W5-D1-L1) with a reasonable W10-D5-L5 on home record behind them. Neither Burnley nor Sheffield United managed to score here earlier this season and the Teessiders and only Leeds have won the Expected Goals (xG) battle more often this term.

Leeds' 1.86 worst run of the Championship campaign has seen the Whites lose their top-two position (W1-D4-L1). Daniel Farke's troops have managed a solitary shutout in eight and failed to win any of their last three away days, all of which arrived at relegation scrappers. The visitors are W8-D9-L3 on their travels, going W3-D5-L2 at top-half opposition.

Asian Handicap angle appeals

Both Teams To Score has to be considered at 1.85 here - Middlesbrough have blanked just four times in 23 outings going back to November, whilst Leeds have seen BTTS bank in six of their most recent eight encounters. But the more appealing price-play is to support Middlesbrough +0.5 Asian Handicap at 2.12 considering the Whites' recent run.

Exclude results against the bottom-five and Leeds have tabled top honours just five times on their travels across the campaign. The Whites have also failed to even score themselves in five of their 10 away trips to top-half teams this term (W3-D5-L2), highlighting their vulnerability away from Elland Road. As odds-on favourites, they're well worth opposing.

Recommended bets

Back Middlesbrough +0.5 Asian Handicap @ 2.12