Middlesbrough – Burnley

Middlesbrough and Burnley will square off at Riverside Stadium, with the match set to have massive implications in the fight against relegation.

Boro is currently second to last in the standings, 7 points away from safety, but also having a game in hand over most of their relegation rivals. While the deficit could still be made up in the remaining 7/8 rounds, the big problem for Boro is that they are playing extremely poor football at the moment. The hosts have 1 point in the last 6 matches and have failed to score in 4 of those.

Burnley is currently 14th in the standings, 12 points above Middlesbrough and 7 points above the drop zone. The visitors are in a pretty good spot and a point today would go a long way in assuring their Premier League safety. Burnley had a really poor run of form with 8 games without a win until their 1-0 win against Stoke a few days ago.

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Team news & lineups:

Fabio, Chambers and Friend are out for Boro and Ramirez will probably miss the game as well. Downing might play at left back given Boro’s problems there. Burnley won`t be able to count on Marney, while Long, Gudmundsson and Defour are questionable.

Middlesbrough: Valdes – Barragan, Bernardo, Gibson, Downing – Traore, Roon, Clayton – Stuani, Gestede – Negredo

Burnley: Heaton – Lowton, Keane, Mee, Ward – Boyd, Hendrick, Barton, Brady – Gray, Barnes

Middlesbrough is the most offensively challenged team in the league, having scored the least amount of goals (22). Their games see the lowest goals average in the division (1.96 goals / game).

Burnley`s matches see an average of 2.45 goals per game, but recently the visitors have played much more cagey and pragmatic football. Just 2 of Burnley`s last 8 games saw over 2.5 goals being scored. In the last three matches, Burnley has a 2-1 goal difference.

Neither team is doing well at all on the offensive end of the pitch, and that obviously suggests a low scoring game (despite Boro’s injury issues at left back). But the circumstances might be even more relevant than the stats.

Burnley would obviously be very happy with a draw here and they will play accordingly, trying to defend in an organized manner and not give Middlesbrough spaces. With Boro being the worst attacking side in the Premier League, you would expect them to struggle big time to create any sort of goalscoring chances.

On the other side Boro should be pretty safe at the back, as they have a decent defense and won`t take many risks themselves (a loss would be catastrophic). They lost 4-2 at Hull last round, but that was a rare result which should determine them to be even more focused on defending well in this match. What`s more, Burnley scored just 9 times in 15 road matches this season.

Look for a blunt midfield battle between two teams that struggle to score goals and are desperate not to lose. My tip here is under 2,5 goals to be scored and I can see a 0-0 or 1-1 draw. Prediction: Middlesbrough – Burnley 1-1.

Pick: under 2,5 goals
Odds: 1.62 @ 1xBet
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 4.34
Event date: 8 April