Swansea vs Leeds prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2024-02-12 19:45.
Luke Williams will feel a whole lot better after finally registering his first league win as head coach of Swansea. The former Notts County chief had lost three of his first four matches (D1) after taking charge of the South Wales club in January, but Luke Cullen’s early strike secured a 1-0 victory at promotion-chasing Hull on Saturday, a result the boss admits gives his players “a huge lift.”
He will certainly hope to build on that victory, as the Swans target back-to-back Championship successes for the first time since October. Their patchy form in the intervening months means the club sit only seven points above the relegation zone, but fans with a long memory may be confident of registering another win, given opponents Leeds have beaten them just once in their last six home H2Hs dating back to 1981 (W3, D2).
The visitors ought not to be too worried about that H2H record given they are currently on a run of six successive league wins, their joint-best run of form since the back end of 2019. Daniel Farke even avoided the dreaded Manager of the Month curse as, despite landing the gong for the club’s form in February, his side went on to hammer beleaguered Rotherham 3-0 on Saturday.
Impressively, that was their sixth clean sheet in their last nine outings across all competitions, with their opponents collectively managing just 13 shots on target in the process! The defence has therefore been the bedrock of a terrific run of results that leaves them breathing down Southampton’s neck in the race for an automatic promotion place, as they sit just one point off the top two, meaning an immediate return to the Premier League remains within grasp.
Players to watch: Swansea midfielder Jamie Paterson struck within the first five minutes of the reverse H2H, meaning five of his last seven scoring games saw him open the match scoring. Patrick Bamford will be jostling with him to have the first say in this fixture as after his early strike against Rotherham, he has opened the scoring in four of Leeds’ seven consecutive league wins.
Hot stat: No team had scored more first half goals in this Championship season than Leeds (29) heading into this round.