Leeds vs Sheffield Wednesday Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

This is always a big fixture on the Championship calendar and it holds added significance this term with both sides mounting promotion challenges. They are currently level on points in the top six with 13 games to go and it’s tough to pick a winner.

Leeds are just wobbling a little bit with only 3 wins from 8 games in all competitions. They’ve maintained strong form at Elland Road, where they’ve won 7 of their last 8 matches but Wednesday will have been able to take some encouragement from some of their recent showings. Cardiff won 2-0 here earlier this month and Leeds haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 6 outings, which is a bit of a worry as defensive stability has been a big reason for their success.

The other major factor in that has been the goal-scoring prowess of Chris Wood. The Kiwi has scored 19 league goals and has 8 in his last 9 Championship appearances so he remains in good form and by some distance Leeds’ main goal threat. Given that, backing Wood to score anytime at 6/4 looks to offer value here.

Wednesday on paper have greater all round firepower but nobody who has been as consistent as Wood up top. They suffered a real setback in midweek, losing 2-1 at home to Brentford to end a 4 game winning streak in the league. The bookies do make Leeds slight favourites but under Carlos Carvalhal, the Owls are a tough nut to crack. He’d probably be content with a draw from this game and they tend to employ a fairly cautious approach in difficult away matches such as this.

Wednesday have already kept clean sheets at Huddersfield and Newcastle this season and they’ve conceded just 0.97 goals per game this term, the 4th best defensive record in the league. They don’t score a huge amount of goals on the road though and they’ve lacked a bit of cutting edge on their travels, with 35% of their away matches ending in draws.

These sides are level on points in the final two play-off places but they do have a healthy 6 point cushion on the side directly below them. Therefore, as this game wears on, it’s hard to see either boss feeling the need to gamble and risk losing the game in search of 3 points so it could be quite cagey and certainly it’s almost impossible to see either team running away with it.

Therefore, backing the draw at 11/5 might just be the best approach to take here and recent meetings between these two at Elland Road have invariably ended that way.