Huddersfield Town and Millwall square off in the Championship on Wednesday night with both clubs occupying places in mid-table.
While the Terriers sit in 14th position after three defeats in four matches, the 16th-placed visitors have failed to win any of their fixtures over the same period.
Match preview
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Having recently put together a five-match winning streak at their home ground, Huddersfield would have been confident of remaining in close proximity to the playoff places during the early weeks of 2021.
However, defeats to Reading and Watford have left the Terriers nine points off their target, putting pressure on Carlos Corberan to find a way to get his team back on track.
The Spaniard rested his first-choice players for the FA Cup tie with Plymouth Argyle, but the break did not benefit the squad as they succumbed at Vicarage Road on Saturday.
While Corberan knows that one win could kick-start their promotion bid, there will also be concerns that another setback will see them having to focus on avoiding a relegation battle.
That thinking also applies to Millwall counterpart Gary Rowett, who remains frustrated that his side have only recorded five wins from 23 matches this season.
Despite still sitting in 16th position, the Lions have now prevailed in just one of their last 15 encounters in the second tier of English football.
Collecting five points from as many games represents a gradual improvement, but the defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday has left the club just seven points adrift of safety.
Four games have passed since Millwall netted a goal in the opening 45 minutes, a run which will need to end sooner rather than later if they wish to make quick headway up the standings.
Huddersfield Town Championship form: DWLWLL
Huddersfield Town form (all competitions): WLWLLL
Millwall Championship form: LWDLDL
Millwall form (all competitions): WDLWDL
Team News
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Rowett will make several changes to his Millwall XI, which could include a start for Ben Thompson.
Matt Smith may also be included in the final third, but Connor Mahoney is likely to miss out despite his return to training.
Missing several of his key players, Corberan could keep alterations to a minimum for this fixture.
Rolando Aarons should keep his place in the side after coming through 62 minutes on his first start for the club.
Jonathan Hogg is expected to be sidelined for the rest of the month after sustaining a hip injury.
Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:
Schofield; Pipa, Edmonds-Green, Crichlow-Noble, Toffolo; O'Brien, Bacuna, Vallejo; Rowe, Campbell, Aarons
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Bialkowski; Cooper, Hutchinson, Pearce; McNamara, Woods, Leonard, Malone; Wallace, Thompson; Smith
We say: Huddersfield Town 1-1 Millwall
Despite their lack of form at both ends of the pitch, each team will fancy their chances of claiming maximum points at the John Smith's Stadium. However, after a hard-fought contest, we expect the clubs to be satisfied with a point apiece.
Top betting tip
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 Millwall win with a probability of 45.12%. A draw had a probability of 27.5% and a win for Huddersfield Town had a probability of 27.35%.
The most likely scoreline for a Millwall win was 0-1 with a probability of 13.07%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (8.82%) and 1-2 (8.69%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.87%), while for a Huddersfield Town win it was 1-0 (9.54%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 13.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Millwall in this match.
