Football Bet of the Day: Blues big price on Friday

Friday’s football action is plentiful once more, but our attention has been caught by an all-Midlands clash in the Championship, which pits together two promotion contenders in Leicester City and Birmingham City (20:00, Sky Sports Main Event). 

The big-spending Blues are looking to make an instant impact after winning League 1 at a canter, while the Foxes are desperate to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. Below you can find Friday’s Football Bet of the Day.

I’m going to ignore the Carabao Cup defeat to Port Vale that Birmingham experienced in midweek as Chris Davies made a whole host of changes and like several Championship clubs, won’t be too bothered that they are out early on.

It means that they avoid those tricky extra fixtures after the international break, while Friday’s opponents Leicester are also out of the Carabao Cup, having lost on penalties to Huddersfield Town in round one.

Leicester vs Birmingham Odds

The league and promotion to the top flight is the main target for both of these teams this season, and Birmingham have taken to life in the Championship like a duck to water. Had it not been for George Hirst’s late penalty on the opening night, they would have picked up three wins from three so far. 

They got past Oxford United 1-0 at home, while they also beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 late on at Ewood Park. Although they’ve won those two games by one goal, their underlying data looks strong early on, and they’ve posted the third-highest xG in the Championship so far. 

I think their aggressive press and talented attacking duo of Kyogo Furuhashi and Jay Stansfield will cause Leicester a lot of problems, even away from home. I’ve not been convinced by the Foxes under Marti Cifuentes so far, even though they picked up an important 1-0 win away at Charlton Athletic last weekend. 

It took a moment of magic from Abdul Fatawu to steal all three points but they lost the xG battle by 1.62 to 0.49 - which is a major difference. When they lost 2-1 to Preston they were also hammered on xG - 2.48 v 0.92, which raises a red flag for me in terms of their quality on the pitch so far. 

I think there is massive value in backing Birmingham to win this game outright, but I’m going to push it a step further and back them to win with a -1 handicap at a big price. I just think Leicester have got away with statistically poor performances against wasteful teams, and Birmingham have the quality to punish them in style on Friday night. 

Offers

Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down

Click here for the latest Football Odds and Today's Football Fixtures

You can read all our latest Football Bet of the Day offerings at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub