Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds United prediction and stats: Tight Yorkshire derby expected
Leeds have begun the Championship season with two draws, but Sheffield Wednesday have had a tumultuous start with a 4-0 win and a 0-4 defeat.
Wednesday fans will be coming into this match against their Yorkshire rivals with a sense of optimism that they may not have felt for some time. Leeds have dominated the rivalry in terms of league position in the last few seasons, and Wednesday have only scored in one of their last five meetings with Leeds, but Danny Rohl’s men have some good attacking talent at their disposal to cause Leeds some difficulties this time around. Bu what will happen at Hillsborough on Friday night?
How to watch Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds live
This game will be broadcast live on Friday 23rd August at 8pm (UK time) on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, as well as the new Sky Sports + app.
Three predictions for Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds
Sheff Wed 1-1 Leeds (6/1 with Midnite)
Over recent years this has been a low-scoring match-up. Often these trends are misleading as historic data doesn’t tend to be all that relevant to future matches, but in situations where there is a derby element there can sometimes be more relevance. There hasn’t been a match between this pair that has gone over 2.5 goals since March 2018.
Both teams have goal threat about them, but Leeds’ usual defensive solidity should ensure that Wednesday don’t create a huge number of chances. The home atmosphere should propel the Owls to score at least once though, whilst Leeds don’t tend to lose many under Farke.
Anthony Musaba First Goalscorer (17/1 with BetMGM)
Musaba has had a really encouraging start to the season for Wednesday. He scored twice on opening day, amongst five shots that he had in the 90 minutes.
Initially playing off the left, but coming inside to threaten the goal, he provides a sizeable goal threat for the Owls, the size of which is not really taken into account in his price.
Svante Ingelsson to be carded (19/5 with Unibet)
The new midfielder was carded in the first half of the Sunderland match for dissent. He can ill afford to add this to his repertoire when he is such an all-action midfielder who is more than capable of picking up cautions through his physical actions as well. He averaged 0.35 cards per 90 in the Bundesliga.2 last season.
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How both teams go into Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds
There are definite seeds of unrest in the Leeds United fanbase with the way that they are seeing the team develop at the moment. Many are bemoaning the fact that they have lost Archie Gray, especially when they have also sold Crysencio Summerville, and Georginio Rutter.
However, it may well be that fans will have to wait for the window to be completed to see what happens with the money earned. Names such as Jack Clarke are being linked with Leeds, and there is no doubt that Farke will be keen to see that money re-invested in the squad.
Two draws, 3-3 at home to Portsmouth, and 0-0 at West Brom, is an underwhelming start to a campaign in which they were favourites for the title, but there is plenty of time for the season to develop.
For Sheffield Wednesday, the opening day euphoria of a big win came crashing back down with a humiliating 0-4 defeat at Sunderland. However, as Danny Rohl said in his post-match quotes, there is no point in getting too high or too low with these results. What Rohl is aiming for is a continuous improvment in performances over time, and the defeat on Sunday was something of a freak event.
New signings Svante Ingelsson, Jamal Lowe, Yan Valery, and Max Lowe have started the season giving a positive impression, and with the Ike Ugbo signing on a permanent confirmed this week, there should be more depth in the Wednesday attack for this season.
Sheffield Wednesday host Leeds at Hillsborough on Friday 23rd August at 8pm.
Sheffield Wednesday team news
The Owls will have been reeling from the sudden and shocking nature of the defeat to Sunderland on Sunday.
Josh Windass’ contributions to a couple of the Sunderland goals may see his position under threat, as well as the possible need to be slightly more cautious against Leeds.
Other than that, there are no obvious changes expected to be made by Wednesday ahead of this match, but Ike Ugbo could be included from the start, depending on fitness. Jamal Lowe could be the one to miss out, with Djeidi Gassama, and Anthony Musaba providing pace and threat across the forward line.
Possible Sheffield Wednesday XI: Beadle; Valery, Bernard, Iorfa, Lowe; Palmer, Bannan; Gassama, Ingelsson, Musaba; Ugbo.
Leeds team news
Leeds are after a couple of new names to add into their squad, especially in forward areas. Daniel Farke has lost Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville in recent weeks and the club is working hard to replace those players, but, in the meantime there isn’t expected to be many changes for Leeds in the Friday night match.
Possible Leeds XI: Meslier; Bogle, Struijk, Rodon, Firpo; Gruev, Ampadu; James, Aaronson, Gnonto; Joseph.
Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds head-to-head
Leeds won the corresponding fixture to this one last season back in March, with a fairly comfortable 2-0 scoreline. In general though, matches have tended to be low scoring affairs between the pair, with BTTS last landing in 2018, six meetings ago.
| Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds H2H | |||||||
| Date | Score | Ground | |||||
| 08/03/24 | Sheff Wed 0-2 Leeds | Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield | |||||
| 02/09/23 | Leeds 0-0 Sheff Wed | Elland Road Stadium, Leeds | |||||
| 11/01/20 | Leeds 0-2 Sheff Wed | Elland Road Stadium, Leeds | |||||
| 26/10/19 | Sheff Wed 0-0 Leeds | Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield | |||||
| 13/04/19 | Leeds 1-0 Sheff Wed | Elland Road Stadium, Leeds | |||||
| 28/09/18 | Sheff Wed 1-1 Leeds | Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield | |||||
