The opening set of three rounds of games in the Sky Bet Championship this week concludes on Sunday afternoon when the leaders Leeds United look to take another step towards Premier League football next term when they travel to Portsmouth.
Portsmouth are at the wrong end of the table as far as they are concerned but they have moved far enough away from the drop zone to be able to attack this with nothing to lose so we should be in for a decent match here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the build-up at Fratton Park beginning at 11.30am ahead of the 12 noon kick off.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth came up from League 1 as champions last season and would have been expected to maintain their Championship status quite comfortably at the very least and it looks like they will do that despite a really ordinary first half of the season. To be fair, injuries hurt them badly in that period and as they have got players back they have moved themselves away from immediate trouble but they are not yet on a point total which will keep them up.
Portsmouth have 39 points in the Championship this term and 29 of them have come on home soil at Fratton Park so they will be delighted to be hosting this match. Despite their early season struggles, Portsmouth have only lost four out of 17 matches on their own patch and 26 of the 43 goals they have scored this season have come there. It will be interesting to see if they are prepared to have a go here or whether they will look to soak up pressure.
Leeds United
We are approaching the point in the season where Leeds United couldn’t go with the pace last term so they will be hugely keen to build up as big an advantage on the chasing pack this time around so that memories of last year don’t come back to haunt them and if they can come out on top in this one they will go five points clear of Burnley in third with just 10 matches remaining and would be in a great position to seal automatic promotion regardless of what happens with the title.
Leeds have only lost three matches all season but if there is a question mark over them it is away from home where they have only won eight out of their 17 matches, although they have come out on top in their last three away games. Two of those have been at Sheffield United and Coventry, two of the form teams in the league, so going away from Elland Road shouldn’t hold any fears for the Whites in this match.
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Team News
Portsmouth have a huge injury list to contend with for this one with Rob Atkinson, Paddy Lane, Haydn Matthews, Callum Lang and Jordan Williams all expected to miss out. The game comes too soon for new recruit Alexander Milosevic too which means Marlon Pack might need to continue at centre-back.
Leeds are going to be without Ethan Ampadu for this match as he misses out with an injury while Patrick Bamford and Max Wober continue to miss out for the visitors so Daniel Farke could name an unchanged XI to the one which played West Brom last week.
Betting
I think Leeds United will have the better of this game even allowing for the Portsmouth home record but that record here at Fratton Park is enough to put me off taking Leeds at a cramped price, especially when we recall that these two drew 3-3 in the reverse meeting at Elland Road on the opening day of the season. Portsmouth have way too many injuries for me to trust them though and I saw them with my own eyes last week and they didn’t look great.
One area where they struggled was at the heart of their defence where a midfielder in Marlon Pack is filling in and Leeds should be able to get the ball wide and stretch Portsmouth to create space in the penalty box. That should bring Joel Piroe into play. The league joint top scorer is 6/4 to score a goal here. He has scored in four of the last five Leeds away matches with the failure coming against Burnley which isn’t a major negative. That price could quickly look big here.
Tips
Back J.Piroe to score anytime for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Unibet
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