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As we said on Friday night, it has been a long, long time since August 2016.
On Friday, Leeds United avenged an August loss to Birmingham City, winning 3-1 on the road. Tonight, the Whites face Fulham, a club that gave us our first point of the season back in August, but one that took points from us at Elland Road at the same time.
Tonight, on their pitch, we hope to return that favor.
Pictured: @officialcwood celebrates after netting #lufc's stoppage-time equaliser against @FulhamFC. pic.twitter.com/GmKx9GwvgD
— Leeds United (@LUFC) August 16, 2016
(At least we got a point that night.)
Leeds United sit 4th in the Championship table, 7 points off automatic promotion and 8 points clear of 7th place, though Fulham have a game in hand. The Whites are a play off team at the moment, playing with a foundation of strong defence, a goal-happy forward, and a multi-option midfield attack, and the 3-1 win on the road over the weekend certainly helped our confidence.
Fulham think they’re a play off team as well. They sit 7th in the table with 56 points, an eye-popping +19 goal differential, and 15 wins to only 8 losses. They’re 16 goals ahead in GD of 5th place Reading, so surely something will give there by season’s end, right?
Andrew Beck seems to think so. The editor of Cottagers Confidential, the SB Nation Fulham blog, answered a few questions for us in this week’s Leeds Against The World. Then yesterday he wrote a comprehensive look at each of the top ten clubs, their advanced stats, and their likelihood to advance. You should read it.
And our Anthony Linley put together our full preview of this match yet again, so read that before gametime tonight as well.
Do you think we can escape Craven Cottage with points tonight? Can we take all three? Let us know in the comments below. A win would certainly be impressive, maybe the most impressive yet in 2017. Let’s do it. MOT.
WHAT
Fulham FC vs. Leeds United
EFL Championship fixture
WHERE
Craven Cottage, Fulham
LUTV, BBC Radio Leeds, International Listings
WHEN
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017
11:45am PT / 2:45pm ET / 7:45pm BT
WHO
Leeds United’s starting XI
Green, Berardi, Bartley, Jansson, Taylor, Bridcutt, Phillips, Sacko, Roofe, Pedraza, Doukara
Subs: Silvestri, Cooper, Vieira, Barrow, Hernandez, Dallas, Antonsson
Fulham’s starting XI
Button, Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Malone, Johansen, McDonald, Aluko, Cairney, Kebano, Martin
Subs: Bettinelli, Odoi, Parker, Madl, Sigurdsson, Sessegnon, Cyriac
ODDS
Leeds 3/1
Draw 11/4
Fulham 17/20
PREDICTIONS
Johnny Wakefield: 2-1 Leeds. Boom. This is the sort of game where you can accept a loss, on the road against a good team desperate for points. You’re happy with a draw: any point in this situation is considered a good effort. But a win? That’d be special. And I think this team is special. Monk will have them playing like it tonight. Goals for Pablo Hernandez and, of course, Chris Wood.... sees lineup... I mean, uh, goals for Doukara and Roofe. In Monk we trust. MOT.
Anthony Linley: 1-1 draw. Leeds United have been lauded for their home form this season losing only 4 and keeping clean sheets. However, Fulham have only been defeated the same amount of times at home and have conceded 1 less goal than Leeds. This one could be low-scoring, I’m predicting a draw.
Joshua Gilbert: 3-2 Leeds. I think this is a game that will keep Leeds in their goal of getting into the top 2. AND, I think Souleymane Doukara gets a hat trick. Bad defending in the 2nd half will lead to two Fulham goals, but the game will be all Leeds.
Mike Stehlik: 2-1 Leeds. I think that this one will be a game that'll be won in the final moments of the game after a hard fought 90. Pontus scores late off a corner/free kick.
Ben Mallis: 2-0 Fulham. Make no mistake, this trip to Fulham is a massive challenge. Getting anything from the game would be a coup. While United have been proving me wrong all season I just can't see it tonight. The locals will be too strong.
Jack Dudley: 2-1 Fulham. I think the best we can hope for is to nick a point. We've been clinical recently but the midfield and composure in the side goes missing for entire periods of games recently. At the moment we go through patches of zero control and zero impact, and it needs to change. Fulham could punish us quite easily. Hope I'm wrong and we just score more than them.