The race for promotion from the Sky Bet Championship is the centre of attention once again on Tuesday evening when two of the top four meet at the King Power Stadium where Leicester City play host to Southampton.
Leicester go into the contest knowing that if they win two of their last three matches they will be promoted back to the Premier League. Southampton are in the slip stream of the top three but will move to within three points of automatic promotion with a win.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7pm ahead of the 8pm kick off at the King Power.
Leicester City
It looked for much of the season that Leicester City would cruise not only to automatic promotion but also to the Championship title in much the same way that Burnley did in this division last term. However they hit the headlines for the wrong reasons off the pitch and that seems to have impacted them on it as they go into this game off the back of a run of just four wins in their last 11 in the Championship. To their credit, they bounced back from successive defeats to beat West Brom at the weekend.
I think even the most ardent Leicester fan would struggle to make out that there was much that was convincing about that win, but at this stage of the season convincing can go by the wayside as long as three points are earned. You suspect Leicester need to find more in their attacking unit if they are going to avoid a lot of nervous energy being consumed over the final couple of weeks of the season. They adopt an intense style which can be demanding on their players which makes a short turnaround a concern.
Southampton
I would imagine if you ask anyone inside the Southampton ranks for their overriding thoughts on the season so far they would say it is one of frustration. Every time they look to be finding a head of steam in their quest to chase down the three sides above them they come up short in a game which sets them back again. That happened at the weekend when they were unable to hold onto a lead at Cardiff and ended up suffering a costly defeat.
They now head to the home of the leaders knowing that if they are going to go up automatically then this is a match that they simply have to win. They could do with winning it fairly convincingly too because they can be assured that the eyes of the other two will be on this game so if they can let them know that they haven’t given in and are coming at them strongly it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. Saints are without a win in three on the road and that needs to change here.
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Team News
Enzo Maresca has declared that he will give full-back Ricardo Pereira as long as possible to prove his fitness ahead of this match. If he is ruled out then Hamza Choudhury is expected to continue to deputise. Patson Daka could come in up front.
Russell Martin has suffered a blow to his Southampton squad for this match with the news that Stuart Armstrong has been ruled out of the remainder of the season. Flynn Downes will be assessed ahead of the trip to Leicester.
Betting
I think we have one of those scenarios where goals are naturally going to come in this match. These two are two of the best teams in the Championship but anyone who has watched either of them recently will struggle to form too much confidence in either of the defences on show and that should be music to the ears of the attacking players involved in this game, of which the quality among them is very strong and more than capable of taking advantage of the defence opposing them.
The first goal in this game is going to be huge. If Leicester City get it Southampton are going to have to really open up to look to get two to get the win they need while Leicester are in the same boat in the reverse situation. This is a game that neither can afford to lose and with both a lot better going forward than defending I fully expect goals to flow naturally in this one. They did in the reverse meeting when Leicester did a job on Southampton winning 4-1. I’ll go with over 3.25 goals here.
Tips
Back Over 3.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
