Southampton – Leicester City

The players of the visiting club will secure a minimum of one point to take home.

The centrepiece of the Championship round is scheduled for Friday evening. It will feature not only the two key favourites for the Championship title at the end of the current draw in England's second division, but also the two clubs with the most expensive squads, as well as the rivals who played at St Mary's in the Premier League - the country's elite division - back in March this year. Of course, for Leicester City and Southampton, playing in the Championship is nothing outlandish, but the current squads of the clubs have not yet experienced the stress of changing divisions. Despite being better staffed than other teams in the division, the process of clubs adapting to the realities of the Championship is noticeable and not going as smoothly as possible. This is evidenced by the unexpected defeats of "foxes" and "saints" in the last round. Bookmakers considered the rivals equal, offering only a slight tilt of the odds in favour of the victory of the home team. Southampton at the end of the last Premier League season returned to the Championship for the first time since the 2011/2012 season. Before the opening round, the main achievement of the Saints was to keep the squad that failed to prove itself in the elite division but looked one of the best in the Championship. However, already now we can note a serious rotation of Southampton's squad, which can seriously affect the results. The team has been left by strong players totalling around 200 million euros, including Lavia, Livramento, Tella, Ward-Prowse and Diallo. Unlike the home team, Leicester City managed to keep the squad more intact. The Foxes were led into the new season by Enzo Maresca, who was appointed on the first day of July. During the off-season, Leicester lost Maddison and Barnes to Tottenham and Newcastle respectively, as well as several other players from the main squad or close to it. At the same time, the Foxes have added both young and very promising and experienced players to their squad: Casadei, Doyle, Coady and Winks. The successful transfer policy affected the starting results of Maresca's team in the Championship. Leicester in the fifth round lost the first points, but the game of the "foxes" looks better than the upcoming opponents.