Preston North End vs Leicester City: Betting Odds & Prediction

Preston North End host Premier League-bound Leicester City in a Championship encounter at Deepdale on Monday night.

Preston, who are now out of the play-off reckoning, are left playing for pride in their final home game of the season. Leicester, meanwhile, have had their promotion confirmed following Leeds’ shock 4-0 loss at QPR on Friday. The match kicks off at 8pm UK time.

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Preston North End

Consecutive losses against Norwich, Southampton and QPR in Preston’s previous three matches put pay to any hopes the Lilywhites had of making the Championship play-offs. After a shaky spell towards the end of 2023 when they lost 11 of 18 league matches, they had got their act together between January and March, going on an unbeaten 7-match run, averaging 2.14 points per game. However, they failed to maintain that form and ran out of steam at the worst possible time.

The goals have dried up dramatically for Preston. They’ve netted just 4 goals in their last 6 Championship games and all 4 of them came in one match, when beating Huddersfield 4-1 on April 9th. They failed to net a single goal in their last three starts. However, four of Preston’s last six games were on the road and their stats are more positive when playing in their own backyard. Ryan Lowe’s men have scored on average just 0.2 goals per game in their last 4 on the road, but in their last 4 at Deepdale, their scoring average jumps to 2 goals per game.

Preston’s seasonal ‘Expected Goals For’ (xGF) total is the second lowest in the Championship at 0.87. At home though, that’s slightly higher at 0.98. Defensively, Preston have been tough to break down of late. They may have leaked 3 against Southampton at St Mary’s a couple of games ago, but they’ve only conceded 9 goals in total in their last 11 encounters.

Leicester City

Leicester were able to sit back and savour QPR’s romp against Leeds on Friday night, which guaranteed their promotion to the Premier League. While the Yorkshire outfit can no longer catch them, Ipswich can, and the Foxes won’t be sipping cocktails with their sunnies on just yet. There’s still a Championship trophy to fight for. Leicester head to Deepdale looking to record a 3rd straight victory, following home wins against West Brom and Southampton. They’ve not notched three wins on the spin since beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 on February 13th.

Leicester have excelled on home turf of late, winning four league matches on the bounce, scoring 12 goals during those games. Three of those encounters were against sides in the current top-6 too. However, in contrast, the Foxes have flopped on their travels. Enzo Maresca’s men are winless in their previous five away games and in the three most recent of those, against sides in the bottom half of the table, they failed to net a single goal.

Prediction

When Leicester entertained Preston back in October, the Foxes ran out cosy 3-0 winners thanks to second-half strikes from Dewsbury-Hall (two) & Iheanacho. However, this is a trickier one to call. Preston are a different beast at Deepdale and the same can be said about Leicester on the road. The fact that Leicester have also clinched promotion and Preston are just playing for pride are also factors to consider.

There have been 13, 12 & 11 match corners in Leicester’s last three away matches and it might be an angle worth looking at once again, in what could be an open, free-flowing affair.

OddsNow's Pick: Over 10.5+ corners (7/5 @ PaddyPower)