Southampton vs Middlesbrough Prediction & Betting Tips - Championship

Prediction published on 27/03/2024, 11:00  by Kennedy Kechula in Championship Predictions

Southampton will seek to keep their automatic promotion ambitions alive when they host other promotion hopefuls, Middlesbrough in their next Championship game. Heading into this game, Southampton are fourth, six places ahead of their visitors. Having garnered 73 points so far, a promotion slot is almost assured for Southampton. They need 13 more points to secure their place in the top six. However, they could be planning for even better, an automatic promotion slot. With two games in hand, Southampton are just nine points behind league leaders, Leeds United. They have recently risen from a blip that saw their promotion credential come under serious threat. Right ahead of the international break, the Saints beat Sunderland 4-2 at home, netting four for the second consecutive game. They had earlier beaten Birmingham City 4-3 to end a run of three straight defeats. A 20-day break before facing Middlesbrough must have been key in their recovery. One of the areas they’ll have to address is defence, having conceded at least two in seven of the last eight games. In most of their recent matches, Southampton have also been slow starters, mostly conceding first.

Middlesbrough will be well psyched for this game, having beaten a number of promotion chasers. One of them was Southampton in a 2-1 win in the reverse fixture. Middlesbrough themselves have promotion ambitions, and that will guide them on their targets here. They have 54 points from 38 matches, seven points below the top six. The promotion push is a congested race and for them, every point matters now. In recent weeks, they beat Norwich and Leicester City, and here’s another chance to claim a huge scalp and boost their own chances. In their last game before the international break, Middlesbrough played to a 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers. That marked a third straight clean sheet for Boro, but they’ve scored just three goals in that period. Having managed more than a goal in just three of their last 12 matches, attack should be an area Michael Carrick plans to work on. He can build on the fact that in six of the last 10 away matches, Middlesbrough scored first.