Game 45: Leeds United vs Bristol City
Leeds United (2nd) vs Bristol City (5th) in the English Football League Championship (2nd Division - more on that later)
Date: Monday, 28 April.
Time: 2pm Central.
TV: Paramount+ and probably some illegal streams that are guaranteed to infect your computer with a million viruses.
What’s at stake:
For Leeds, they’re trying to maintain Burnley’s pace to win the League. The Fightin JJ Watts beat Queens Park Rangers 5-0 on Saturday. Leeds have already been promoted to the Premier League, and their 94 points recorded are already a club record. Should Leeds win out, they’ll reach 100 points, which has only happened six previous times in the 2nd tier of English soccer.
Bristol City is currently sitting in 5th Place with 67 points. Teams that finish the season in 3rd-6th places go to a playoff to determine the 3rd team to join the Premier League. 6th Place Coventry City is one point behind Bristol, with 66 points, and tied with Millwall, who is in 7th Place by virtue of having a worse goal differential than Coventry. But Coventry and Millwall have each played one more game than Bristol, so anything Bristol gets from this game will solidify their spot in the playoff.
Previous Results:
As every team plays every other team twice per season, Leeds and Bristol battled to a 0-0 draw at Bristol on October 26, 2024. However, xG (Expected Goals, which features Nerd Math as it does in baseball) put that game at 1.4-0.1 for Leeds United.
Leeds have only lost once at Elland Road in the 24-25 season (to Burnley, naturally, back in September.)
Bristol City have only won four games away from Ashton Gate, but have taken points in 12 of their 22 away games.
Leeds have only lost two games since December 1, going 18-8-2 in all competitions.
To be fair, Bristol City have only lost four games in 2025.
Formations
Leeds has played a 4-2-3-1 (four defenders, two deeper midfielders, three attacking midfielders, and one forward) for the last two games. It’s basically a 4-5-1 with the two defensive midfielders helping out both defending and attacking.
For the last six games, Bristol has played a 3-4-3 (three defenders, four midfielders, three forwards).
Leeds win: 8/15
Bristol City win: 9/2
Draw: 3/1