Preview | Middlesbrough v Swansea City
Swansea City kick-off their 2024-25 Championship campaign with a trip to Teesside to take on Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium (12.30pm).
The Swans head into the season on the back of a positive result and performance in their final pre-season outing against Rio Ave, and head coach Luke Williams has challenged his side to be ready to go toe to toe with their hosts this afternoon.
Boro are among the sides fancied to launch a promotion tilt this term, and they bolstered their ranks with the signing of Manchester City product Micah Hamilton on Friday.
Team News
Žan Vipotnik is in contention to make his Swansea City debut in Saturday’s Championship opener at Middlesbrough, while Ronald is also in with a chance of being involved on Teesside.
Striker Vipotnik linked up with his new teammates earlier this week and is in line to be part of head coach Williams’ squad ahead of the trip to take on Boro.
Winger Ronald, meanwhile, has recovered from a hamstring injury and a late decision will be made on his availability.
Lawrence Vigouroux, Jisung Eom and Gonçalo Franco are also set to make their Swansea debuts following their summer arrivals.
But Andy Fisher, Joe Allen, Josh Ginnelly, Sam Parker and Aimar Govea will miss out for the visitors.
Pre-match views
Luke Williams: “We have expectations as a group. The players expect me to prepare them to go toe to toe, and I expect them to not be afraid of anyone.
“We have a mutual respect between staff and players and that is how we are approaching the season.
“I hope we have improved from where we were last season, I know that might not be the most exciting answer you have ever heard but I really hope we have improved and people can see that.
“That is what I would like to hear the supporters say, that they recognise the group is moving forward in a positive direction and that they feel optimistic and excited about the team.
“If we have that, we will know we are on the right track.
"We have young guys and it would be great to see some real optimism that this group can grow together and become a really good Championship team.”
Michael Carrick: “There is a lot of excitement, it feels like it has been a lifetime since our last league game.
“We have put in an awful lot of hard work and we are ready, everything is exciting and fresh and we just want to get started now.
“We have got a stability to the group now, we have added to it a bit. The boys know what to expect, they know about each other, and I am sure that will help us.”
Meet the officials
Sam Allison will be the man in the middle at the Riverside, you can find out more about the referee and his team of officials here.
Remember the last time?
Swansea City suffered defeat on their last visit to Teesside as Emmanuel Latte Lath’s brace settled matters at the Riverside Stadium in April.
The Middlesbrough striker had broken the deadlock on the stroke of half-time after the Swans had been guilty of failing to clear a cross into their box.
And he then put the seal in the win for the hosts with a fine finish with 12 minutes to play.
His goals settled a scrappy contest low on clear-cut chances, and head coach Luke Williams was deeply frustrated his side did not claim a share of the spoils given there was little between the sides in general play despite Boro’s play-off aspirations.
Prime numbers
1 - Swansea City have lost just one of their last 10 opening-day fixtures, with that sole defeat coming at Blackburn in 2021.
2 - The Swans have won twice at the Riverside Stadium since the stadium opened in 1995, the most recent of those wins came in 2020.