In the 23rd round of Championship league, we will see Reading hosting Middlesbrough at Madejski Stadium in hopes to win their 5th match of the season.
The home side, Reading are currently 21st in the league, only barely holding above the relegation zone. In this season Reading has a 4-7-11 record and are 0-3-2 in the last 5 games. They are not playing particularly well as they have not won a match in the last 6. Looking at their home record, Reading is 3-2-6 with 2 wins in their last 5 games. Looking at their most recent match against Rotherham, Reading scored an early goal in the 9th minute, which was also the only goal in the first half, despite a total of 17 goal attempts from both sides. The second half saw even more opportunities, as teams combined a total of 29 goal attempts and 10 shots on goal, however once again we saw only 1 goal being scored, only this time from the home side. Rotherham scored an equalizer in the final minute of the match, which prevented Reading from winning their first match since the start of November. All in all the match saw a lot of scoring opportunities (46 goal attempts) but only 2 goals. Final score: 1:1.
The visiting team Middlesbrough are currently at 6th place in the league with a 9-9-4 record and 1-2-2 in the last 5 matches. In away games, they are ranked 5th best in the league with a 4-5-2 record and hold a 2-2-1 record in their last 5 away games. Looking at their last match against QPR, Middlesbrough suffered a goal only 4 minutes into the match. This was also the only goal scored in the first 45 minutes despite a total of 11 goal attempts from both teams combined. In the second half, Middlesbrough managed to score an equalizer in the 51st minute, but QPR soon responded with a goal of their own in a 60th minute, when Wells got his team back into the lead. The 2nd half was fairly equal, with QPR a few more goal attempts, however, just like Middlesbrough, they had only 1 shot on goal. The match ended 2:1, with QPR winning their 9th game of the season.
Looking at the last 3 H2H matches between Reading and Middlesbrough, it was Middlesbrough who won all 3. This might be the case once again today, but we won’t be betting on Middlesbrough. Looking at Reading performance, their biggest issue is their defence. Reading knows how to score a goal, in fact they are averaging 2 goals/match at home, but they also concede on average 2 goals/match. Their defence is the main thing that is preventing them from sitting higher on the league table. On the other side, Middlesbrough is not as effective when it comes to scoring, but do perform better in the defensive end than Reading. Better does not necessarily mean good in this case. Middlesbrough has conceded on average at least 1 goal in away games, and also managed to score at least 1 goal. From what we have seen from these two teams up until now, I see this match ending with each team scoring at least 1 goal.
Prediction: Over 2.50 goals
Odds: 2.17 SBOBET
