Week 26 brings us a match on Jan 2nd, where Birmingham City hosts Middlesbrough in a meeting of these two extremely mismatched Championship teams. Weather on match day is looking like a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 5 degrees, making for an unpleasant day. 15th placed Birmingham City is fresh off their 0-3 loss against Burnley. Anass Zaroury scored the first goal for Burnley in the 1st minute, then Connor Roberts added another in the 44th minute on a feed from Josh Brownhill In the end, Birmingham City couldn’t muster any offence and Burnley ran away with the shutout win. Birmingham City is looking for direction having 3 win and 3 losses in their last 10 matches, while 6th placed Middlesbrough is fresh off their 2-1 win against Blackburn Rovers. Ryan Hedges scored the first goal for Blackburn Rovers in the 6th minute, but Marcus Forss got the equalizer for Middlesbrough in the 46th minute But luckily in the 56th minute, they were able to complete the comback with a goal by Riley McGree. With 20 points in their last 10 matches Middlesbrough should be reasonably happy with their performance.
In their last match together, in Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough was victorious by a score of 1 to 0. Chuba Akpom scored the first goal for Middlesbrough in the 23rd minute, and that was all the excitement the two teams could muster In the end, Birmingham City was frustrated by Middlesbrough’s defence and couldn’t put any tallies on the board. Middlesbrough ended the match with the shutout victory.
Chuba Akpom has been on a hot streak lately. In the last five games, the attacker has scored 4 goals for Middlesbrough. Troy Deeney has been the most prolific scorer on Birmingham City in the last five matches with 3 goals.