Birmingham City vs Leeds United
Championship
Date: 3rd March 2017
Kick off at 19:45 UK/ 20:45 CET
Venue: St. Andrew’s Stadium.
Leeds head coach Garry Monk is wary of Birmingham as his side bid to keep up the pressure on the Sky Bet Championship top three.
Despite Birmingham's poor form since Gianfranco Zola took over, Monk, who is banned from the touchline for his part in the melee at the end of Leeds' loss to Huddersfield last month, is taking nothing for granted.
"The Championship doesn't allow you to relax for a second, not for a moment," he said. "Since they changed their manager it probably hasn't gone as smoothly results-wise as they would've liked.
"That squad has been competing for play-off places over the last couple of seasons. They got a good result against Wolves, that will give them confidence. They have the quality within that squad to do much better than they have.
"They'll be wanting to build on that game, so we're expecting a tough game. That win will give them confidence, so we have to be ready. It would be a mistake not to show the respect that Birmingham need, just because they have had a difficult time."
Birmingham City vs Leeds United: Head to head
Birmingham lead the head to head tie by five wins ahead of the teams’ 75th encounter in history.
The Blues surprisingly took a 1-2 win at Elland Road when the sides met each other in the first part of the season thanks to goals from Maghoma and Morrison.
Birmingham City vs Leeds United: Prediction
It’s hard to say which of the two sides is closer to getting three points here. The visitors should be favourites, but it will be very interesting to see how Birmingham will react after they finally managed to grab the victory in the last round.
Anyhow, we don’t expect a beauty on Friday evening at St. Andrew’s and we will fancy the draw at 12/5 as the top betting option.
Birmingham City vs Leeds United: Bets
The first pick will be draw at 12/5.
The ones who chase correct score bets can go with the 1-1 at 5/1 odds.
