Leeds United, Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton will continue their four way fight for automatic promotion this weekend.
The international break has allowed all four sides to rest and recover ahead of an exciting run-in, all be it the majority of Leeds’ squad in particular have been away with their respective countries.
For the first time all season Leeds moved to the top of the Championship in the final match before the break, defeating Millwall 2-0 at Elland Road with Leicester in FA Cup action.
Leeds have won 12 of their 13 league matches in 2024 but know the job is far from over with Leicester still in a very good position, Ipswich in a superb run of their own, and Southampton having two games in hand.
On the latest episode of the Football Fill-In Podcast, Ben Foster, Darren Bent and former Leicester striker Danny Thomas all provided their predictions for the two teams who will go up automatically.
Foster responds as Bent predicts who will win automatic promotion
Former England striker Bent has said before that he expects both Leeds and Ipswich to finish in the top two, with the latter clearly the side he really wants to go up having played for them before.
Both Thomas and Foster, though, had different opinions, which shows how tight the race really is, and how many twists and turns there could be between now and the end of the season.
Foster asked: “Pick two out of them three who will go up automatically then…”
Bent went first and said: “Ipswich Town obviously. Ipswich and Leeds.”
Danny Thomas disagreed: “Leicester and Leeds.”
Foster then responded: “I am with Danny, sorry mate.”
What other pundits have said about Championship promotion race
With the Championship now very much at the business end of the season, pundits from across the footballing world have been giving their predictions.
Amid their fine run of form, plenty have backed Leeds to get the job done, including the likes of Jamie Carragher, Simon Jordan and Danny Murphy.
On the other hand, former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor perhaps unsurprisingly suggested he does not want to see Leeds return to the Premier League due to how poor they were last time out.
One thing is for sure, it is a promotion race like no other this division has ever seen and any kind of slip up is likely to be punished.
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