Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds predictions: High stakes derby could see the points shared

- Sheffield Wednesday have avoided defeat in 10 of their last 12 home matches
- Three of the last five fixtures between Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds have finished all square
- Recommended bet: Draw

Sheffield Wednesday have been stuck in the Championship relegation zone since August but they approach the Yorkshire derby at home to Leeds knowing that a point will be enough to lift them out of the bottom three.

The Owls have been making excellent progress in 2024 and stretched their winning streak to four with Tuesday’s hard-fought 1-0 victory at home to Plymouth.

Leeds are unbeaten in the league since December and head to Hillsborough needing a victory to climb into the automatic promotion places.

They also had a successful Tuesday evening, winning 1-0 at home to Stoke.

Team news

Wednesday’s Ian Poveda is ineligible to face his parent club and Josh Windass (muscle strain) and Kristian Pedersen (leg) are sidelined.

Barry Bannan (head) is a doubt after being withdrawn at half-time during Tuesday’s 1-0 victory at home to Plymouth.

Pascal Struijk (groin) and Stuart Dallas (hip) remain unavailable for Leeds and Jaidon Anthony is expected to miss out again after being absent for the 1-0 win at home to Stoke due to a ‘personal matter’.

Jamie Shackleton (illness) is a doubt.

The stats

Sheffield Wednesday have avoided defeat in 10 of their last 12 home games.

The Owls have won their last four Championship matches.

Wednesday have kept five clean sheets in their last eight games.

Three of the last five matches between the Owls and Leeds have seen the points shared.

Leeds have won 10 of their last 11 Championship fixtures.

All of Leeds’s six Championship losses have come in away games.

Prediction

Sheffield Wednesday are on a four-game winning run for the first time this season and they are playing well enough to hold Leeds to a draw at Hillsborough.

The Owls will be forced into at least one change with Leeds loanee Poveda unable to face his parent club and they are sweating on the availability of key midfielder Bannan.

However, they have grown accustomed to grinding out results and are likely to offer substantial resistance to Leeds, who have dropped plenty of points on their travels.

Leeds have failed to take maximum points in nine of 18 Championship away games and they were held to a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield last Saturday despite their opponents suffering the blow of losing midfielder Jonathan Hogg to a 45th-minute red card.

Daniel Farke’s men bounced back with a scrappy 1-0 win at home to Stoke but they have not been at their fluent best in recent weeks and may struggle to justify favouritism on Friday night.

Back the draw at 14/5 with LiveScore Bet

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