Our prediction for this Championship match:
Coventry City play host to Middlesbrough at their Coventry Building Society Arena in the Championship playoffs semis, first leg. The Sky Blues finished the regular season in 5th place in the standings and they are undefeated in the previous seven league fixtures. The likes of Kasey Palmer, Fabio Tavares, and Callum OHare remain on the sidelines with injuries, but there are no suspended players in the home team.
The Boro shared the spoils with Coventry in the last game of the regular season and yet another close encounter is on the cards. The likes of Aaron Ramsey, Dael Fry, and Matt Clarke should miss out with injuries for the visiting side. Anyhow, we believe that there is a big value in betting on draw as the two teams seem to be evenly matched at the moment. You should know that under 2.5 goals have been netted in each of the previous four meetings between the two sides in the English second tier.
Highlighted Player (Simon Moore):
Simon Moore is an English goalkeeper who plays for Sheffield United in the Championship. Moore began his career at Brading Town and, after playing 49 games in the league for the club, he moved to Farnborough in 2008. However, due to the lack of first-team football, Simon Moore left the club at the end of the season, with the 191-cm-tall shoot-stopper signing a contract with Brentford.
The English goalkeeper, who was born in Sandown on May 19, 1990, made his debut for the Bees in May, 2010 against Hartlepool United, coming as a substitute for first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. After ending his loan spell with Basingstoke Town in January 2011, he moved to Cardiff City and it has to be noted that he made 17 appearances for the Welsh outfit.
In the summer of 2016 he signed a deal with Sheffield United for a fee of around £500,000 and he did remarkably well to keep 17 clean sheets in the 2016/2017 League One campaign. The Blades finished the season in top position in the standings and, no doubt, Simon Moore’s brilliant saves helped the club secure promotion to the English second tier.
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.