Leeds v Southampton Betting Tips [26 May 2024]

An instant return to the Premier League awaits either Leeds United or Southampton. The two sides will face off in the promotion playoff final on Sunday after sailing through their respective two-legged semi-finals. After playing to a 0-0 first leg draw with Norwich, Leeds bamboozled their visitors in the return leg, winning 4-0 to book their final slot. From a dominant home performance came a well-deserved win and Leeds will look to build on their first win in four games. However, taking on Southampton hasn’t made for the best outings for Leeds United. In their two meetings this season, Southampton won home and away. That left Leeds United with just a win in their last six matches against Southampton. If they are to play in the topflight next season, this is a narrative Leeds United will have to change. They have two clean sheets in their last two games to start with but failure to score twice in four matches is a concern. As seen in their last game though, Leeds can be an outstanding attacking side on their day. The win over Norwich was the second time in five matches that they scored four goals. However, in three of their last five matches, Leeds conceded two or more.

Southampton will look back at their dominant displays against Leeds United for inspiration coming here. Like Leeds, they too played to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their semi, before seeing off West Bromwich Albion 3-1 at home. In their final game of the regular season, the Saints beat Leeds United 2-1 to finish on a high after three straight losses. Here they don’t just have the chance to extend their dominance, but also have the opportunity to return to the Premier League. Heading to Wembley unbeaten in their last three games should give Southampton the confidence they need here. William Smallbone and Adam Armstrong have scored the five goals in the regular season as Southampton downed Leeds. The two were the destroyers-in-chief again against West Brom in the semis. Approaching the final, there’s confirmation that Che Adams will feature, which makes the Saints’ attack even sharper. With these figures, they should be able to do better than in their last five away matches, where they failed to score three times.

There’s everything to play for here and both teams will be up to it after comfortable, high-scoring aggregate wins in the playoff semis. While the promotion playoff final is traditionally a nervy affair, here we expect the two sides to come out all guns blazing. They showed it in the semis and are also coming from recent high-scoring ventures. Their last two matches produced at least three goals and we could see the same here. Our prediction for Leeds United v Southampton is for the game to produce over 2.5 goals.