Sammie Szmodics aims dig at Leeds United before making play-off prediction | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers man Sammie Szmodics has tipped Leeds United to win promotion from the play-offs and make an immediate return to the Premier League.

Leeds' supporters will be all too familiar with Szmodics and his goalscoring exploits this season, as the Blackburn man put a huge dent in their automatic promotion hopes when he scored the only goal of the game as Rovers won 1-0 at Elland Road last month.

The Republic of Ireland international had a phenomenal 2023/24 season, and despite playing for a side that very nearly suffered relegation, he won the Championship Golden Boot award with 27 league goals, and in total scored 33 goals in 48 appearances for Blackburn.

It was a real breakthrough campaign for the 28-year-old, and one that no-one really saw coming, and the Colchester-born attacker has now tipped Leeds for promotion.

Sammie Szmodics tips Leeds to win promotion via the play-offs

Having played against all four sides in this season's Championship play-offs, Szmodics is well-placed to discuss which side he believes will win promotion.

The Irish international was a guest on the 'No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast', and he was asked to give his opinion on who he thought would win the play-offs.

The Blackburn man was confident in his answer, and he couldn't resist making a slight dig, too.

He said: "I would have to go, just because I have played against them, with Leeds. Elland Road, tough place to go but not for Blackburn actually! We went there and beat them but the players they’ve got, and the team they’ve got I think they will do it."

Despite a shaky end to the season which saw Daniel Farke's side lose to the likes of Blackburn, QPR and Southampton, they know that if they can find the form they showed during the middle of the season, there's no reason why they can't win the play-offs and make an immediate return to the Premier League.

Leeds United will need to shake off their play-off woes to win promotion

This play-off campaign will be Leeds United's sixth, and the club have been unsuccessful in all five previously.

This means that Daniel Farke's side will have to create history if they're to take the final spot in the 2024/25 Premier League, but there would be no better time to shake off their play-off woes than this season.

The circumstances ahead of this game aren't too dissimilar to Leeds' last play-off campaign five years ago, where they finished third and played sixth place Derby County.

The Leeds faithful won't need reminding about what happened on that occasion, but you feel that Leeds certainly have the best squad out of the four teams, and if Farke can get the best out of them, then Szmodics' prediction will likely come true.