Leeds Utd – Preston

The favourite to win at home will secure a convincing victory in their arena

Leeds United before the start of the season was considered one of the three key favourites to return to the elite division of England. The process of acclimatisation in the Championship for the Whites was not easy, so the team began to climb up the standings after ten to fifteen rounds. Now Leeds United is tightly located in the play-off zone and has ambitions for second place, giving the right of direct promotion. From it "peacocks" are only seven points behind, which for nineteen rounds to the finish looks quite a winnable distance. Preston has traditionally had an interesting start to the season. If in the last championship the team played five times 0-0 in the seven starting rounds, in the current one for the same period scored nineteen points, which allowed it to be in the leading position. Subsequently, Preston began to look much more modest, which with the course of the championship "brought" it to the middle of the standings - in twelfth place. Bookmakers have identified the home team as clear favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 1.29 on their victory. In the first two months of the current season Leeds United did not make an impression of a real contender for a return to the Premier League. During this period, the team has never won two matches in a row. Such a frequent loss of points stopped since October last year. Leeds finally acclimatised to the Championship and won nine of eleven rounds until the second decade of December. At the same time, the last weeks of 2023 brought the hosts of the upcoming meeting only one victory in five rounds. This playing form looked far from championship form and required the Whites to take urgent action. The last three official matches showed Leeds United's readiness to fight for the second position. All of them ended with the victory of "peacocks" with the same score 3:0. In preparation for the upcoming meeting players and coaches of the home team will remember the result of the confrontation with Preston in the first round. Then Leeds played half of the match in the minority and lost with the score 1:2. Today, the difference in the strength of the rivals is so great in favour of the favourite, that his victory with an advantage of several goals looks quite a realistic result.