Fulham booked their place in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final with an impressive comeback victory over Derby County at Craven Cottage, with Aston Villa and Middlesbrough battling tonight to join them at Wembley tonight.
Like Fulham, Boro will have to overturn a 1-0 defeat from the first-leg to progress, after a lacklustre performance against Villa on Saturday.
Mile Jedinak’s first-half header was enough to secure victory for Villa, who will be full of confidence ahead of tonight’s second-leg at Villa Park.
Tony Pulis will be expecting a reaction from his Boro side, who were a million miles away from their best in front of an expectant Riverside on Saturday evening.
It is likely that Pulis will make a couple of changes to his starting XI, as he looks to overturn Saturday’s result.
With that in mind, we take a look at the starting XI we are expecting to see, which could fire Boro to Wembley…
Randolph has been trusted in the biggest games this season and that won’t change at Villa Park.
Fabio made an excellent impact off the bench on Saturday, providing Boro with most of their attacking threat in the second-half. He deserves to start tonight.
Ayala is an injury doubt, but if there is any chance of him making tonight’s starting XI, Pulis will include him. If he doesn’t, Ryan Shotton will feature centrally.
Gibson will take up his usual role in the back-four.
Friend will feature on the left side of defence, as he has for the bulk of the season.
Howson will feature in a three-man midfield once again, bringing plenty of play-off experience to Boro’s engine room.
Boro looked like they missed their captain on Saturday evening and Pulis will be seriously considering drafting Leadbitter back in tonight.
Besic should continue in central midfield this evening, with Adam Clayton dropping out of the starting XI.
Villa did brilliantly against Traore on Saturday and the winger is going to have to find a way of shaking off Alan Hutton tonight.
It just didn’t happen for Britt Assombalonga on Saturday and Pulis should turn to Bamford to help Boro back into this one.
Downing was quiet on Saturday, but still possesses the quality to change a game. He should continue.