Our prediction for this Championship match:
Birmingham City
Match Time & Date:
02/01/2023
16:00
Prediction: 0-1
Middlesbrough
St. Andrew’s Stadium will host Monday’s Championship game between Birmingham City and Middlesbrough, the two sides who sit in the opposite halves of the table. The Blues occupy 16th place ahead of Matchday 26, with the team losing each of their last two league matches. Both Harlee Dean and Przemyslaw Placheta are sidelined with injuries, but there are no suspended players in the home team.
Meanwhile, the Boro aim to build on back-to-back wins over Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers. Talented Finland attacker Marcus Forss has found his goal-scoring touch of late, meaning that the opposition defenders should have him at bay. Defender Matt Clarke, on the other hand, remains in the recovery room. Anyhow, away win should be considered as Middlesbrough have been in a much better form of late than Birmingham City. In the first half of the season the Boro defeated the Blues thanks to Chuba Akpom’s goal.
Highlighted Player (George Friend):
George Friend has played for no less than nine English clubs so far in his career. Friend made his first-team debut for non-League club Exeter City on April 17, 2006 in a goalless draw with Forest Green Rovers and he stayed at St James Park until 2008. After ending his loan spells with Tiverton Town and Team Bath he joined Wolverhampton, but he made no more than seven appearances for the Wolves in the league.
The 188-cm-tall left-back, who is capable of playing as a centre-back as well, played for the likes of Millwall, Southend, Scunthorpe United and Exeter City on loan during his spell with Wolverhampton and at the end of the 2009/2010 season he signed a two-year deal with Doncaster Rovers. Friend made his Doncaster debut on August 7, 2010 in a 2-0 win over Preston and after three years at the club he was sold to Middlesbrough for a fee of £100,000.
The left-footed defender has been playing for Boro ever since and you should know that he made 24 appearances for the club in the 2016/2017 Premier League campaign.
Highlighted Team (Middlesbrough):
Middlesbrough is a professional football club that have been balancing between the top two divisions of England’s league system in the modern history. Boro have been playing their home games at the Riverside Stadium since 1995 and their shirt colour is red. The capacity of the Riverside Stadium is 34,742. Middlesbrough impressed in the 2015/2016 Championship campaign and they did really well to secure promotion to the English top flight. Newcastle United and Sunderland are regarded as the club’s main rivals, but there is a rivalry with Leeds United as well.
Middlesbrough made it to the FA Cup final in 1997, but Chelsea proved to be a big catch for the Boro in the title game (0-2). However, the Riverside Stadium outfit did remarkably well to win the League Cup trophy in 2004, with the team beating Bolton Wanderers in the final. George Boateng, Stewart Downing, Juninho Paulista, Gareth Southgate, Jonathan Woodgate, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Tuncay Sanli and Hamilton Ricard are the star footballers who left their mark at Middlesbrough.
Manchester United 
Leicester 
PSG 
Monaco 
Porto
Sporting
Leyton Orient
Man City
Newcastle
Brighton
Chelsea
