Middlesbrough vs Norwich Prediction: Canaries to keep run going at Riverside

Two sides in contrasting form meet at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday night (KO, 19:45), as Middlesbrough host Norwich City in the Championship. The hosts have won just one of their last seven league games and are currently 14th, 11 points behind their seventh-placed opponents who are one point off the play-off spots.

The Canaries are unbeaten in their last six matches but are poor travellers, having won just four of their 17 away from home in the league. Ahead of this clash on Teesside we have offered our predictions on how it will unfold and suggested a couple of betting angles to consider.

Team News

The hosts have several players still out injured including Jonny Howson, Hayden Hackney, Alex Bangura and Josh Coburn, while there are doubts over Dael Fry who has missed the last four matches.

Norwich have some key players on the sidelines themselves with Jonathan Rowe, Shane Duffy and Onel Hernandez all missing games through injury recently.

Match Odds

Middlesbrough are 13/10, or a 42.5 per cent chance, to pick up three points in midweek, while the visitors can be backed at 2/1 - a 33.3 per cent chance.

The draw is available at 12/5 and over 2.5 goals is 8/11.

Draw or Norwich and both teams to score @ 7/5

Any hopes of a second-half of the season push for the play-off places looks to have evaporated on Teesside. Boro have been a shadow of the side that finished fourth last year and two straight defeats has further dented their confidence.

Norwich on the other hand look on course to crash the top-six and put their hat in the ring for promotion. It's been a tale of two ends for them this season with their poor defensive record - only Preston (52) have conceded more in the top 14 than the Canaries (51) - saved by their nose for goals, with only the top four clubs scoring more than their tally of 60.

As such, it's no surprise to see Norwich rank highly in the BTTS table, with 23 (66 per cent) of their 35 league outings seeing both sides score. That number jumps up to 76 per cent for away matches, and both teams were on target when Boro won the reverse fixture at Carrow Road in October.

After drawing a blank in their last two, the hosts should be able to find a way through a leaky Canaries defence, but that's unlikely to be enough for them to claim all three points.

Josh Sargent to score anytime @ 15/8

The USA international started the season on fire, scoring three in his first four starts before picking up an injury that kept him out for four months. He returned at the end of 2023 and after taking a bit of time to get back up to speed, the 24-year-old has been in inspired form over the past month.

Since the start of February, Sargent has struck six times in as many games, taking his Championship tally to 11 in 15 games. He will surely be relishing the chance to face a Boro side that has conceded at least twice in four of their last five matches.

At 15/8, the same price to score anytime as Boro striker Emmanuel Latte Lath who has just five goals in the league and none since December 13, Sargent offers great value in the market.

Place an In-Play bet of £10 or more (odds of 1/2+) on any Champions League or Championship game on Wednesday and get £5 in Free Bets to use on Thursday’s Europa League/Europa Conference League games. (Credited by 17:00 Thursday).

Check out the rest of our Football Betting Tips here.