Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers Draw 0-0 in Boxing Day Championship Match
On Boxing Day 2025, Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers played to a 0-0 draw at Riverside Stadium in a Championship fixture.
The result left Middlesbrough in second place in the league, eight points behind the leaders Coventry.
Middlesbrough's manager Kim Hellberg, in his first month with the club, stayed focused on football over the Christmas period, having his wife and two children remain in Sweden as he worked long hours. The Blackburn match was the first of four games Middlesbrough would play in nine days.
Hellberg employed a 4-2-2-2 formation that was observed to be too compact, resulting in attacks mainly through central areas with limited use of width.
Blackburn's midfielder Todd Cantwell, recently fit after an injury, was influential behind the front two while wearing a heavy bandage on his right knee.
Chances in the first half included a wide shot from Yuki Ohashi and a shot from Morgan Whittaker that hit the post following a counter-attack involving Strelec and Hackney.
In the second half, 19-year-old Norwegian and Manchester City loanee Sverre Nypan was introduced. Moussa Baradji also came on for Ryoya Morishita. Blackburn's Hayden Hackney received a yellow card after an altercation with Middlesbrough's Taylor Gardner-Hickman.
Blackburn, managed by Ismaël, used a back five formation that helped limit Middlesbrough's wing play and control Todd Cantwell's influence on the game.
