Middlesbrough vs Hull City verdict, predicted score, key stats and suggested bets
- George Dempsey
- 18 April 2023
Middlesbrough could guarantee themselves a spot in the Championship play-offs with a victory against Hull City on Wednesday evening.
Date, KO time and TV coverage
Championship, Wednesday, April 19, Kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports Main Event.
Predicted score
Suggested bets
Middlesbrough win and over 2.5 goals
Over 2.5 goals
Chuba Akpom to score
Key stats
Chuba Akpom has scored 19 times in 21 home matches.
Middlesbrough have scored at least twice in 11 of their last 14 matches.
Middlesbrough beat Hull City 3-1 earlier in the season.
Team news
The major news ahead of this game is the injury to Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey has contributed five goals and an assist in eight appearances, but he'll miss this game with an ankle injury.
Marcus Forss (leg), Riley McGee (ankle) and Matt Clarke (back) are all unavailable for selection, whilst Dael Fry (knock) is a doubt and will be assessed on Wednesday.
Ryan Longman (leg), Aaron Connolly (toe), Oscar Estupinan (ankle), Cyrus Christie (knee), Benjamin Tetteh (hamstring), Nathan Baxter (ankle) and Vaughn Covil (ACL) make up the long list of absentees for Hull.
Verdict
Middlesbrough's push for automatic promotion to the Premier League looks dead in the water. Their 5-1 win over Norwich was impressive, but Boro remain eight points behind Sheffield United who occupy second place.
Goals from Aaron Ramsey, Hayden Hackney and Cameron Archer had put the game out of Norwich's reach by half-time, with a second for Archer and a Chuba Akpom penalty applying the gloss after the break.
A 2-1 loss at Turf Moor followed by a 2-2 draw at Ashton Gate was the final nail in the coffin, although their superb home form under Michael Carrick will make them the favourite to reach the play-off final.
Hull's last outing was a 0-0 draw against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. As dull as that sounds, it was a fairly entertaining affair with both sides missing chances. A draw was a fair result as City showcased their newfound resilience.
You never quite know what you're going to get from Hull. Nestled amongst a string of 0-0, 1-0 and 1-1 results, City have put on several defensive disaster classes, including their 4-4 draw at Sunderland.
The Tigers have also shown their teeth a few times on their travels, putting four past Wigan and Rotherham, and three past Blackpool and Cardiff.
A majority of those wild results came before Liam Rosenior took charge in November of last year. Since then, Hull have looked more secure at the back, but they've also threatened less going forward.
Middlesbrough's leaky defence has conceded nine goals in their last four matches and even when they have kept the opposition out, they've still given away many chances. It's a byproduct of the attacking approach that's made them a success.
Looking back a little further at Boro's past eight matches, they've found the back of the net 23 times and conceded 11, making for an average of 4.25 goals per game. Backing back teams to score has been a winning bet in six of those games.
Hull were more than happy to engage in an end-to-end game at the Stadium of Light, where a desperate and attack-minded Sunderland left them plenty of space to exploit, and there will be moments in this game where Boro do the same.
Michael Carrick's team has so many attacking threats that it's unlikely Hull will be able to keep things tight for long, which is something that's contributed to their low-scoring results.
The scoring has been opened inside 25 minutes at the Riverside in each of Boro's last five home matches, with Chuba Akpom scoring six times in that stretch.
