Birmingham City will be looking to extend their unbeaten run in the Championship to six matches when they travel to struggling Barnsley on Tuesday night.
The Blues beat Bristol City on Friday to move into 15th spot in the table, but Barnsley remain inside the relegation zone despite holding Sheffield Wednesday to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Match preview
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Promoted back to the Championship after finishing second in League One last season, Barnsley are facing a battle to retain their status in the second tier for the 2020-21 campaign.
Indeed, a total of 25 points from their 31 matches has left them in 23rd spot in the table, eight points from the safety of 21st position, which is a big concern at this stage of the season.
No team has won fewer Championship matches than Barnsley (5) this term, while they are without a victory in their last four in the league, including defeats to Bristol City, Preston North End and Charlton Athletic.
Gerhard Struber's side did pick up a 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday afternoon, but the Tykes will need to start putting victories on the board if they are to escape the relegation zone.
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Birmingham were victorious in the reverse match between the two teams earlier this season, but Barnsley have won three of their last six meetings in all competitions.
The Blues will be feeling good about themselves at the moment having picked up 11 points from their last five Championship matches, including wins over Nottingham Forest and Bristol City in their last two.
Pep Clotet's side finished 17th in the Championship last season but are currently 15th, now 11 points clear of the bottom three with 15 matches of the campaign left to play.
Birmingham also progressed in the FA Cup by overcoming Coventry City on penalties last week and will take on Leicester City in the fifth round on March 4.
Barnsley Championship form: LWLLLD
Barnsley form (all competitions): WLLLLD
Birmingham Championship form: LWDDWW
Birmingham form (all competitions): DDDWWW
Team News
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Barnsley will again be without the services of Bambo Diaby, Samuel Radlinger and Marcel Ritzmaier, but Struber's side did not pick up any fresh concerns against Sheffield Wednesday.
Cauley Woodrow was on the scoresheet against the Owls and will again start in the final third of the field, while Conor Chaplin should also feature in attack.
The quick turnaround means that Struber could consider shuffling his pack, though, and Callum Styles will be among those hoping to be handed a spot in the XI.
As for Birmingham, Josh McEachran, Jacques Maghoma, Kerim Mrabti and David Stockdale remain unavailable for selection through injury.
Clotet could decide to select the same XI that started the win over Bristol City, meaning that Scott Hogan would again join Lukas Jutkiewicz in the final third of the field with Jude Bellingham operating wide.
Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Collins; Williams, Soulbauer, Andersen, Oduor; Simoes, Mowatt, Thomas; Brown, Woodrow, Chaplin
Birmingham possible starting lineup:
Camp; Colin, Roberts, Clarke-Salter, Pedersen; Bela, Sunjic, Gardner, Bellingham; Hogan, Jutkiewicz
We say: Barnsley 1-2 Birmingham
Both sides will enter this match off the back of positive results, but Birmingham are certainly in the better form overall. The visitors will fancy their chances of putting another three points on the board, and we are finding it difficult to look past the Blues in Tuesday night's affair.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a win with a probability of 41.01%. A win for had a probability of 34.12% and a draw had a probability of 24.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.8%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.6%) and 2-0 (6.49%). The likeliest win was 1-2 (7.9%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.66%).
