, The72 Championship Team of the Week Matchday 13: Brilliant Besic puts Boro top

The72 Championship Team of the Week Matchday 13: Brilliant Besic puts Boro top

Middlesbrough have returned to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table after beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at Hillsborough on Friday night.

Sheffield United suffered their first defeat in six matches as they were beaten 2-1 at Pride Park by Derby County, who have moved up to fifth in the table.

West Bromwich Albion were also stunned, losing 1-0 at the DW Stadium against Wigan Athletic after being reduced to 10 men.

At the other end of the table, Reading moved out of the bottom three after a 3-1 home win over relegation rivals Millwall, and Hull City moved off the bottom of the pile with a 1-1 draw against fellow strugglers, Preston North End.

In a week full of many shock results, here is who made our Championship Team of the Week, based on match ratings from WhoScored.com.

Formation: 4-2-4

Goalkeeper: Anssi Jaakkola (Reading) 9.11

Anssi Jaakkola made his first Reading appearance of the season during their 3-1 victory over Millwall at the Madejski Stadium.

The 31-year-old Finnish stopper made 10 saves to deny the Lions, helping the Royals to earn their first win in four league matches, nine more saves than his opposite number, Ben Amos.

Jaakkola also claimed the ball on one occasion and won all two of his aerial duels.

He will be hoping to keep his place in Paul Clement’s starting team, having not featured for them since a 3-2 defeat to Norwich City in March.

Right-back: Ryan Shotton (Middlesbrough) 8.26

Ryan Shotton played a key role for the Boro as they earned a 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Friday.

The full-back won 13 aerial duels, six more than any other player.

He also completed five tackles, the most managed by any player from Tony Pulis’ side.

Shotton also managed four interceptions, just two fewer than the entire Wednesday team.

Centre-back: Darragh Lenihan (Blackburn Rovers) 8.02

Blackburn are now level on points with the play-off places and have moved up to seventh in the table after a 2-1 victory over Leeds United at Ewood Park.

Irish defender Darragh Lenihan got the winner for Tony Mowbray’s side with 20 minutes to go.

He headed in substitute Craig Conway’s corner past Bailey Peacock-Farrell to give Blackburn their second consecutive Championship victory.

Lenihan also won seven aerial duels, a total only matched by teammate and Rovers’ other goalscorer, Danny Graham.

Centre-back: Timm Klose (Norwich City) 8.16

Despite starting at centre-back, Timm Klose’s brace in the second half earned Norwich a 2-1 victory away at Nottingham Forest.

The Swiss defender levelled the match on the hour mark when he guided Moritz Leitner’s in-swinging free-kick past Forest’s Costel Pantillimon with his head.

Klose then snatched a late winner for Daniel Farke’s side when Jordan Rhodes’ header from Emiliano Buendia’s corner was saved, only for Klose to fire home the rebound from close-range with just six minutes remaining.

It was the first time that Klose had ever netted a brace in his professional career and it has taken the 30-year-old’s tally for the club up to nine.

Left-back: Jay Dasilva (Bristol City) 8.26

One of the weekend’s shock results saw Bristol City earn a 1-0 victory at Griffin Park against Brentford.

Despite not starting for the Robins, on-loan Chelsea full-back Jay Dasilva marked his return from international duty with England’s under-21s by providing the assist for Lee Johnson’s side’s 89th-minute winner.

Niclas Eliasson got the winning goal for City when he volleyed in Dasilva’s cross at the back post for his first Championship goal for the club since arriving from Norrkoping in August 2017.

Dasilva also completed three dribbles, the same amount managed by the whole of Brentford’s starting side.

Centre-midfield: Muhamed Besic (Middlesbrough) 9.23

This week’s Player of the Week is Middlesbrough’s Muhamed Besic, who was pivotal in their win on Friday.

Besic had a hand in both of the visitors’ goals at the start of the second half to move Boro back to the top of the Championship standings.

He opened the scoring four minutes after the interval, finishing off a superb team move with a low driven effort across the face of goal and past Wednesday’s Cameron Dawson.

Six minutes later, Besic created what proved to be the crucial goal when he made the most of a horrendously misplaced pass from Tom Lees, before unselfishly squaring the ball to Britt Assombalonga who tapped the ball into an empty net.

Centre-midfield: Gary Gardner (Birmingham City) 8.53

Birmingham City are the only club to have three players feature in this week’s best 11, after their 1-0 win over Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium.

The Blues’ midfielder Gary Gardner was named as WhoScored’s star man for his role in the win.

He completed all five of his attempted tackles against the Potters, the most of any of Garry Monk’s visiting side.

With just six minutes to spare, Gardner also made a crucial block to deny Joe Allen’s close-range attempt, which proved to be enough to move Birmingham to within four points of the play-off places.

Right-wing: Che Adams (Birmingham City) 7.97

Che Adams got his fourth league goal of the campaign to secure the victory in Staffordshire, all of which have come away from home.

In the final 10 minutes of the clash between these Gary Rowett-managed teams of past and present, Adams slid in at the back post to put away Lukas Jutkiewicz’s driven cross to earn their first win away at Stoke since December 2009.

Adams completed 75% of his attempted 20 passes making him Monk’s side’s second most accurate passer behind Jota (86%).

He also managed to steer all three of his attempted shots on target, proving to be causing Stoke’s Jack Butland problems with more than just his late goal.

Striker: Lukas Jutkiewicz (Birmingham City) 8.35

Another sterling performance from Jutkiewicz earned him another mention in the Championship’s best 11 from this weekend.

His low and fizzing cross found the run of Adams at the back post to extend Birmingham’s unbeaten run to nine matches.

Jutkiewicz won a ridiculous 17 aerial duels yesterday against Stoke, three more than the 14 managed by all 14 players that featured for the hosts.

The 29-year-old has averaged a match rating of 7.86 out of 10 across his 13 league matches so far this term, a score 0.31 higher than any other player that has played over 50% of the Championship season.

Striker: Yakou Meite (Reading) 8.88

Yakou Meite netted two of Reading’s goals during their 3-1 win victory at home to Millwall.

He opened the scoring shortly before the half-hour mark when he headed Tyler Blackett’s cross in off the inside of the back post.

Meite secured three points for the hosts in the final five minutes of the tie when Leandro Bacuna’s corner found an unmarked Meite, who powered his headed effort past Amos.

In his first 28 appearances for the club, Meite had only managed to score two goals but doubled his tally for his side in Berkshire on Saturday.

Left-wing: Jack Marriott (Derby County) 8.17

Derby are now just four points behind the Championship’s top two sides after a 2-1 win over The Blades on home soil.

Jack Marriott continued his run of form and was heavily involved in both of the Rams’ goals.

Marriott teed up Craig Bryson at the end of a very early passing move from the hosts give Frank Lampard’s side the lead after just 19 seconds.

The ex-Peterborough United forward then got the winner for Derby with less than a quarter-of-an-hour to play, instinctively putting away Craig Forsyth’s cross with a sublime first-time volley.

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