Middlesbrough travel away to Fulham with the hopes of making an attempt of winning a trophy along with their survival in the Premier League this season. Aitor Karanka will definitely be looking to rotate his squad coming to this game, but that will only mean he gets players like Jordan Rhodes, Fabio, Dani Ayala, David Nugent, Albert Adamoah are among the few quality players that Middlesbrough will bring into the side to give them chance to prove their fitness and their deserving of their spot on the weekend in the premier league. Jordan Rhodes in particular will be licking his lips at the opportunity to score a goal in a tournament that actually got him national recognition; which will also enable him to prove a point to Karanka on his readiness to lead the line. Leadbitter, Espinosa, Valdes de Roon and Husband are all definitely ruled out. Middlesbrough and Fulham played 2 games last year, drawing 0-0 in their first meeting, while winning the second one away to Fulham back in February by a score of 2-0.
Fulham come into this tie after a good start to this season after not losing a game so far, winning 3 and drawing 2 of their games played so far. The common feature in this, they were able to find the back of the net in every game so far, despite them selling Dembele and McCormack. Matt Smith has been leading the line for Fulham and already managed to net 2 goals so far, and while rotation is on the mind of manager Jovanovic, he might look to put on a decent squad against their former divisional rivals. Fulham's defence has been a liability so far, leaking goals in 4 out of their 5 games so far, which could continue to be a struggle for them with a good scoring Middlesbrough in form.
We can expect a strong performance and entertaining fixture in this game, and while both teams are in scoring form, I can expect Middlesbrough to just edge this game, so I am backing them on the Asian Handicap.
Pick Middlesbrough AH:-0.2 Odds 1.83
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