Looking to smash the 50-point mark before the halfway point of the season, Premier League-bound Leicester City welcome a struggling Millwall outfit to the King Power Stadium on Wednesday night in the Championship.
The Foxes are steaming towards automatic promotion once again after back-to-back defeats in November, while the Lions are still finding their feet following the departure of Gary Rowett.
Match preview
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With a move in the January transfer window all-but guaranteed, having previously featured for just 20 minutes in the Championship this season, Leicester City forward Patson Daka displayed the utmost professionalism to produce a solid display and bag a goal in his side's 4-0 demolition of Plymouth Argyle on Saturday afternoon.
The Zambia international has found himself buried beneath an array of exciting attacking options at the disposal of Enzo Maresca but helped his team when called upon against Steven Schumacher's homesick Pilgrims, with a Stephy Mavididi brace and Wilfred Ndidi's second of the term sealing the Foxes' most comfortable victory of the campaign.
Whilst Leicester took care of their Devonshire opponents in the East Midlands, title rivals Ipswich Town were recording another standout success on Teesside against Michael Carrick's Middlesbrough, meaning the 2015-16 Premier League champions remain just one point above second, although the gap to third-placed Leeds United is eight points.
A midfield trio of Nigeria international Ndidi, former England man Harry Winks and leading playmaker Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is enough to strike fear into any second-tier side, with the latter scoring six goals and providing seven assists from the engine room, but head coach Maresca has demanded even more creativity from the ex-Luton Town loanee.
As anticipated when discussing the league leaders, Leicester have an impressive record at their King Power home so far, collecting 24 points from 10 matches and conceding just four times during those contests, highlighting the strength of the Foxes' backline with the likes of Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes, who have kept Conor Coady on the bench for the majority of the term.
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Millwall have now lost three of their last four games under the stewardship of former Everton and Chelsea assistant Joe Edwards after falling to a narrow defeat in South Wales against Erol Bulut's top-six chasing Cardiff City, who grabbed the game's only goal in fortuitous fashion.
In a contest devoid of much quality, Bluebirds centre-back Dimitrios Goutas was able to direct a relatively-tame header towards the Lions' net, but Matija Sarkic - making his first start since September following injury - fumbled his attempts to save, allowing Cardiff to snatch all three points.
The South Londoners are heading in a different direction with Edwards now in charge at The Den, although his efforts to implement a more possession-based style have not yielded plenty of results so far, with the 37-year-old's only win coming away at relegation-threatened Sheffield Wednesday, thanks to goals from the likes of Wes Harding and Brooke Norton-Cuffy.
Last season's dynamic duo of Tom Bradshaw and Zian Flemming have struggled to replicate their sensational form in front of goal, with the Englishman and the flying Dutchman scoring just five goals between them so far despite netting 32 goals combined during the playoff push of 2022-23.
Highlighting the varying fortunes of the two sides in recent history, the last King Power meeting between Leicester and Millwall was back in November 2013, when an opener from Lloyd Dyer and a Jamie Vardy brace sealed maximum points against a Lions side managed by Steve Lomas.
Team News
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Leicester are hoping that forwards Kelechi Iheanacho and Vardy can return to first-team activities on Wednesday, with the pair missing the Plymouth win due to illness and a knee issue respectively.
Daka is in line for back-to-back appearances should the aforementioned duo remain unavailable, although Tom Cannon could be handed his maiden start since joining from Everton for £7.5m in the summer.
Ricardo Pereira will return to the Foxes' XI after serving a one-game suspension against the Pilgrims, meaning Hamza Choudhury will drop to the bench unless he is deployed in the midfield.
Maresca has often made sweeping changes for midweek matches in the second tier - recently to the detriment of results - with Cesare Casadei and Yunus Akgun hoping for spots in the side.
Millwall remain without the services of midfielder Casper de Norre, with the former Genk man out until after Christmas due to a calf strain sustained at the end of November.
The Lions will be boosted by the returns of George Saville and Jake Cooper during the daunting trip to the King Power, with the pair serving one-game bans for yellow card accumulation last time out.
Despite Sarkic making a mistake on his return to the XI against Cardiff, the Montenegro international is key to how Edwards wants his side to play, so Bartosz Bialkowski will have to settle for a watching brief once again.
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Hermansen; Pereira, Faes, Vestergaard, Justin; Winks, Ndidi, Dewsbury-Hall; Fatawu, Mavididi, Daka
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Sarkic; Harding, Hutchinson, Cooper, Wallace; Norton-Cuffy, Mitchell, Saville, Longman; Flemming, Bradshaw
We say: Leicester City 2-0 Millwall
Leicester were convincing winners over Plymouth on the weekend, and there is no reason to suggest why the Foxes cannot repeat the trick against a Millwall side who could look to be quite progressive at the King Power.
The Lions' tricky run of fixtures culminates on Wednesday night in the East Midlands, where we feel that Edwards's side will be the next victims of the league leaders.
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Top tip
Carter White
