Football Bet of the Day: Millwall to heap pressure on top two

We’ve got Champions League action coming our way on Tuesday night as the last-16 begins in earnest, but as always, it’s the EFL Championship games that have caught my eye for our Football Bet of the Day.

Millwall are putting together an automatic promotion push, and they welcome Derby County to the Den (19:45 GMT, Sky Sports+), looking to continue that winning run. 

Millwall vs Derby Odds

Alex Neil must be delighted with what he is seeing from his players recently. Millwall have now won five of their last six matches, including their last three on the bounce, and they are turning the heat up on the top two of Middlesbrough and Coventry City. 

That duo haven’t cracked under the pressure just yet, but with a couple of crucial head-to-heads coming up, Neil’s men might just fancy their chances of breaking into the automatic promotion places. Even if they don’t, they are going to be serious contenders in the play-offs, but I think they can take things to the wire. 

They’ve been strong home and away, but will be relieved to return to the Den where they have won 10 of their 18 Championship encounters this term. The quality is pouring out of this Millwall outfit, with Tristan Crama an elite defender and right winger Femi Azeez two of the standout players in the second tier. 

Combine that with an industrious midfield and with Mihailo Ivanovic and Josh Coburn sharing the goalscoring responsibilities, there’s a lot of reasons to be positive as a Millwall fan right now. Derby have play-off ambitions of their own and are certainly an exciting outfit, with one of the smarter managers in the league in John Eustace. 

Back-to-back home wins have strengthened their bid for a top six finish and strangely, it had been their Pride Park form that had held them back this term. They had the best away record in the league a couple of weeks ago but have dropped off slightly with defeats against Watford and Hull. 

The home wins have come against relegation candidates Blackburn Rovers and already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday, so I won’t read too much into those six points, and I expect them to fall to another defeat here. However, the Rams have been good for a goal or two lately. 

They’ve scored seven in their last three games, while they’ve only failed to score once in their last 27 games. They enjoy playing a front four full of attacking talent and it can leave them open at the back, so I think Millwall can take full advantage on Tuesday night. 

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