Sheffield Wednesday: What former Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder thinks of Middlesbrough's surprise Owls friendly

The two sides have agreed to play an unorthadox match of four 30 minute quarters in the searing Portuguese heat on Tuesday.

Both Wednesday and Boro have friendlies pencilled in for Friday with the Owls taking on newly-promoted Premier League side Bournemouth and Chris Wilder’s side facing Braga.

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Wednesday had been hopeful of arranging another match while away on their training camp and boyhood Blade Wilder will now provide the opposition, it has been confirmed by Boro.

Wilder took over as boss of Middlesbrough from Neil Warnock last year, taking the team to seventh in the Championship and just missing out on a play-off place in his first role since departing Sheffield United after five hugely successful years.

And the 55-year-old has explained the reasoning behind the match, with Middlesbrough looking light in squad depth for the upcoming campaign.

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“We’ve got a behind-closed-doors friendly with Sheffield Wednesday,” Wilder said. “We’ve got a senior group of players here of about 13 or 14 that we know we need to add too. But that game will give us an opportunity to work on one or two things with the senior players that will benefit them.

"But most importantly is going from 45 minutes to 60 minutes. We’ve designed the game so that it is four half an hours so players can get 60 minutes. Then we look towards the game on Friday and really ramping it for that one because it will be a really different level."