The EFL pundit now predicts who will win the Championship play-off final…Leeds United or Southampton

The OPTA supercomputer had Leeds and Southampton as favorites to reach the final and so it was no surprise to many to see them comfortably edge out Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion respectively.

Sunday’s encounter is certainly made all the more intriguing by the fact that Southampton were the only team to complete a league double against Leeds during the regular season.

However, Leeds actually finished three points clear of Saints in the table, meaning they are two extremely well matched teams coming into the game.

Adrian Clarke shares Leeds vs Southampton prediction

The Championship play-off final has been dubbed the most expensive game in football and so all eyes will be on Wembley on Sunday afternoon.

As such, several pundits have already started presenting their predictions for the match, with David Prutton and Ally McCoist among them backing Leeds to win on penalties.

Instead, Dion Dublin is giving Southampton a run for their money after becoming a big fan of the style of play that Russell Martin implemented on the South Coast.

And speaking on the latest episode of ‘What The EFL Podcast’, Clarke also predicted Southampton will win for a similar reason to Dublin.

He said: “He’s going to have to be at his best defensively, that’s the only thing I’m worried about with Southampton. In open play, and I know they have improved recently, they have scored 54 goals over the course of the season. Leeds let in 29, that’s a huge difference.

“If they don’t defend brilliantly up the pitch, that Leeds front four could really hurt them. But in a way it favors the Saints here, it could easily go to extra time, but part of me thinks Southampton are just a better coached team.

“Leeds are strong, talented, fast, all these things, but tactically Southampton are more. They can hurt you in different ways.”

Could Illan Meslier be Leeds’ hero if they go to penalties?

As is always the case with a final, there is the possibility that this could be decided by a penalty shoot-out, just like 12 months ago between Coventry City and Luton Town.

With that in mind, Illan Meslier will have a huge role to play in dictating which way the result goes, but he will certainly need to improve on his penalty save record.

Excluding penalties, Meslier saved just one of the 19 spot-kicks he faced for Leeds, which came against West Ham United in March 2021. Incidentally, Jesse Lingard scored the comeback anyway.

On the other hand, Meslier won the only penalty shootout he was involved in for Leeds in September 2021 at Fulham in the EFL Cup. He made one save in a 6-5 win.

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