In-form Southampton travel to Middlesbrough for the first leg of their Championship playoffs semifinal as the battle begins for the final spot in the 2026-27 Premier League.
Here’s everything you need to know about Saturday’s big match:
How to watch:
The match will be shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football in the UK, Prime Video and Paramount+ in the U.S., FanCode in India and beIN Sports 2 in Australia. You can also follow ESPN’s live updates.
Key Details:
Kick-off time: Saturday, May 9 at 12:30 pm BST (7.30 am ET, 5 pm IST, 9.30 pm AEST).
Venue: Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
Referee: Farai Hallam
Injury and Team News:
Middlesbrough
Hayden Hackney, M: muscle, DOUBT
Alfie Jones, D: ankle, DOUBT
Darragh Lenihan, D: ankle, OUT
Southampton
Jack Stephens, D: calf, DOUBT
Alex McCarthy, GK: wrist, OUT
Mads Roerslev, M: knee, OUT
Talking Points:
Saints look to leverage momentum
The Championship playoffs may be a notoriously difficult challenge, one in which prior form often goes out of the window, but rarely have teams come into them in the kind of form that Southampton bring into it. They’re unbeaten in their final 19 Championship games (W14 D5) and in their last 23 matches across competitions have only lost once: to Manchester City, and that was very narrowly.
They are arguably the most in-form team in the country, and they will take some stopping.
Oh, and the only time Southampton had a longer unbeaten run in the league (22) was in 2023-24, and they were eventually getting promoted via the playoffs in that campaign.
Middlesbrough look to rediscover form
At the opposite end of the form spectrum are the home side. Their tremendous mid-season form carried them through at the end, but two wins in their last 10 league games (5D, 3L) don’t make for pretty reading. In fact, before that run of 10 games, they were second and in line for automatic promotion (four ahead of eventual second place finishers Ipswich Town and 16 ahead of Southampton… the Saints ended up on the same number of points as Boro by the end).
They continued to play good football through the period, but underperforming their xG (14 scored from 22.3 xG created; 12 conceded from 11.42 xGA conceded) cost them. Come the pressure of knockout football, the home crowd will be praying their team rediscovers their scoring boots.
What do the numbers say?
-
Boro have a good recent home record against the Saints, winning their last two home games against them, including a 4-0 league win in January. In fact, Southampton are winless in four meetings with Middlesbrough home and away (2D 2L). However, this is a very different Southampton they’ll face on Saturday and there’s a stat going against them: Boro have never beaten the Saints three times in a row at the Riverside.
-
Since they last got promoted via the playoffs (1987-88), Middlesbrough have been involved in the second division’s playoffs four times without success. In fact, in those four times, they reached the final only once (2014-15)
-
Southampton, meanwhile, have been to these playoffs two times before, and have won promotion via a final win once (2023-24, beating Leeds United)
