Middlesbrough v Norwich City
Monday 25th May 2015 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Football – England – Championship Play-off Final Betting Tips
Potentially the biggest prize in English football, a place in the Premier League, will be contested on Bank Holiday Monday between two teams desperate to return to the big time – Middlesbrough taking on Norwich City at Wembley.
Relatively speaking, this match is bigger than the FA Cup, a Premier League title or even the Champions League with instant TV rights and associated merchandise sales/sponsorship that is worth approximately 100 million pounds to the winner, and losing is not an option.
Middlesbrough safely negotiated their play-off semi-final against Brentford winning 5-1 on aggregate as a 2-1 win at Griffin Park set them up nicely for the home leg at the Riverside Stadium with Boro winning 3-0 to book their place in the final.
Middlesbrough’s defensive qualities have been at the forefront of their success this season under the guidance of Spanish manager Karanka, and they’ll once again be looking to keep things tight at the back and perhaps try and hit Norwich City on the counter-attack.
Of the two teams, Norwich City are the more attacking outfit and this was on display at Carrow Road in the second leg of their play-off semi-final with rivals Ipswich Town as the Canaries ran out 3-1 winners despite the importance of the fixture as well as being a local derby.
Norwich safely avoided defeat in the first leg at Portman Road, but this afternoon the stakes have been raised to maximum and I daresay Canaries manager Alex Neil will be stressing the importance of keeping a clean sheet in the first 20 minutes or so of the match, striking a balance between attack and defence.
Despite there being just one point separating the two sides at the end of the regular season, Norwich City’s away record was far better than Boro’s as they registered three wins more and lost three games fewer throughout the season on the road.
Middlesbrough v Norwich City Betting Tips
With this being an ‘away’ match for both teams on neutral ground, Norwich City might just have the edge over their opponents, but this is a one-off, winner-takes-all situation. The cost of losing may well be greater than the cost of winning in the players’ minds here, so I’ll back the draw at the end of ninety minutes for this crucial match to go into extra-time or perhaps even penalties.
Pick: Draw @ 3.30 bet365
