Middlesbrough v Bournemouth Betting Tips [18 December 2021]

Ninth place Middlesbrough will be hoping for an improved second half of the campaign as they look to push for a playoff spot. They host second place Bournemouth at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday for matchday 23 of the Championship in what should be a very interesting match. The hosts are five points behind sixth place Stoke City and will be looking to close the gap against a Bournemouth side going through a bad patch of form. The visitors haven’t won in their last five attempts and have seen their lead over third place West Brom shrink to just three points. Middlesbrough have won two of their last three and are coming off a 0-0 away draw to Stoke. Bournemouth are coming off a disappointing 2-0 loss at home to Blackburn. Boro unfortunately suffered injuries to a number of key players in the goalless draw against Stoke, the most notable being Matt Crooks who was forced off late in the match.  Crooks has been Boro’s best performing player this season and the influential midfielder is also the teams top scorer. It’s still unclear whether or not he will be ready for Saturday’s clash against Bournemouth and his absence would be a huge miss for the home side. 

Bournemouth have been great on the road this season with a league high 22 points earned away from the Vitality Stadium. They’ve conceded only six goals away from home giving them a fantastic 0.55 goals conceded per away match. Middlesbrough have been decent at home, earning 17 of their 30 points in front of the home fans. The important stats that we are going to look at for our bet in this match are the half-time performances of each team. Both teams have been fantastic in the first-half, with each side only trailing once going into the break this season and share identical half-time records at 12-9-1. Each side has impressively been able to lock their opponents down in the first 45 minute with both conceding just three goals.

Given the importance of the match with both teams having a lot on the line, this one could have a cagey start. We’re going to back the first-half draw as we would expect this one to finish 0-0 a decent amount of the time. The absence of Crooks would be a huge blow for Middlesbrough and another reason why this game could lack in the goals department. Under 2.5 or the first-half under 1 are both good alternatives if you would rather play the goals market.