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Middlesbrough coach Aitor Karanka insists his side are not favourites for the Monday's Championship playoff final despite having beaten opponents Norwich twice this season. Boro head into Monday's Wembley final looking to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2009. Despite beating Norwich 4-0 at home and 1-0 away this season, Karanka says his side face a tough challenge against a Canaries side who were relegated from the top flight last season. "I don't think we're favourites," Karanka told his club's official website. "I don't think the two games in the league were a good reflection. "At the beginning of the season, they weren't in a good way and in the game when we played there [at Carrow Road] they had chances and we were practically defending for 60 minutes. "So I don't think we're favourites, especially if you look at their squad. They were playing the last three seasons in the Premier League and we were playing to save ourselves [in the Championship], so we're not favourites. But we are going to go there [Wembley] to fight against a very good team." Boro finished fourth in the Championship on 85 points -- a place and a point behind Norwich -- and Karanka will relish the opportunity to take his side back to the Premier League. "I'm very proud of all of them [the players]," he said. "I said since my first day that I'm very proud to be here with the chairman, the crowd and the club. "For me it's a pleasure and a big responsibility, but I'm very pleased to be here and, if it's possible, to put Middlesbrough in the Premier League again." Meanwhile, Norwich boss Alex Neil believes the best way to prepare for the biggest match in his short managerial career, and arguably in Norwich's history, will be to treat Monday's final as just another game. Back in August, the 33-year-old Scot began the season as player-manager of Hamilton, tackling Arbroath at New Douglas Park. But 10 months on Neil now stands on the verge of guiding Norwich back into the Premier League, and with it a £120 million promotion jackpot following a staggering run of 16 victories in his 24 matches since replacing Neil Adams at the start of January. Wembley fever may have engulfed Canaries fans around the globe since beating East Anglia rivals Ipswich in the semifinal, with some 39,500 tickets having been snapped up and coaches, trains and planes from as far afield as Canada, Australia and South Vietnam all booked. Yet Neil has kept the squad's preparations focused on the job in hand -- winning a football match. "The way I go about it and the detail is different but not the process, that is the same whether it was Arbroath or now Middlesbrough at Wembley. I will still do the same things with my players," said Neil, who took the players down to London at the start of the week to help familiarise both the squad and himself ahead of a first trip to the national stadium. "The background detail is obviously different because this is a one-off match. In a league game you can make the points up further down the line. "But it doesn't matter who I am playing. If I haven't prepared my team then I haven't done my job, but I know there is a lot more at stake in this final game." Information from the Press Association was used in this report.
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