Three days on from an uneventful first leg, Middlesbrough and Coventry City reconvene for their second Championship playoff semi-final showdown at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday night.

The two Premier League hopefuls played out a goalless draw at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Sunday, despite the presence of the Championship’s two leading marksmen.

With 49 strikes between them in the regular season, the battle for attacking supremacy between 28-goal Middlesbrough hero Chuba Akpom and 21-goal Coventry talisman Viktor Gyokeres was expected to be an intriguing one on Sunday.

However, clear-cut chances were at a premium in a game that neither side evidently wanted to lose. Oventry fired 11 shots during the course of the game, but not a single one hit the target, while Ben Wilson had to save the Sky Blues’ bacon on a couple of occasions as well.

While Coventry’s resilience was rightly lauded, Middlesbrough will now enter the midweek second leg as firm favourites to finish the job in front of their own fans, although the hosts have been labouring through a sticky patch at the worst possible time.

Michael Carrick’s side have now failed to win any of their last four matches – scoring just two goals in 360 minutes of football – and they have just two victories to show from their last nine games in the Championship, which does not make for pleasant reading.

On the other hand, Sunday’s goalless affair ended an eight-game run without a clean sheet for Middlesbrough, who have scored in 14 successive league matches at the Riverside since a 0-0 draw against Huddersfield Town in October, but Coventry’s away-day specialists are well-documented.

Not hesitant to playing mind games straight after the final whistle on Sunday, Coventry manager Mark Robins affirmed that his men will travel to the Riverside with the presssure firmly off the shoulders, while also bemoaning his side’s distinct lack of ruthlessness in front of their own fans.

Coventry, who have been absent from the Premier League for 22 years, may be possessing the underdogs lable ahead of the second leg, but the Sky Blues established a reputation as one of the division’s most difficult teams to beat in the second half of the regular season.

From their final 17 matches prior to the playoffs, Coventry only suffered one defeat – a surprise 4-0 home beating at the hands of Stoke City – navigating their final seven games unbeaten with three wins and four draws to their name.

Playing on unfamiliar territory has not distracted the Sky Blues either, as they enter the second leg having avoided defeat in nine successive away games, and they have not conceded more than one goal in a contest on their travels during the entirety of 2023 so far.

That run includes a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium as recently as May 8, and the hosts have just one win to boast about from their last five meetings with the Sky Blues, who can look forward to a Wimbley encounter with Sunderland ot Luton Town should their resilience on the road win out again.

Middlesbrough vs. Coventry City Head to head

In the 46 previous meetings between these two teams, Middlesbrough have claimed 17 victories while Coventry have won 15, and they have drawn in 14. Coventry have scored 51 goals and conceded 58 in the process.

• 11/09/2021
  Coventry City

  2

  Middlesbrough

  0
  Championship
• 29/01/2022
  Middlesbrough

  1

  Coventry City

  0
  Championship
• 01/10/2022
  Coventry City

  1

  Middlesbrough

  0
  Championship
• 08/05/2023
  Middlesbrough

  1

  Coventry City

  1
  Championship
• 14/05/2023
  Coventry City

  0

  Middlesbrough

  0
  Championship