Millwall and Bristol City face off at The Den on Saturday afternoon in the penultimate round of Championship fixtures.
The Lions are eight points better off than City, but like their opponents they have little left to play for in the remaining week of the regular season.
Match preview
© Reuters
Gary Rowett's side had a slim chance of reaching the playoffs with four games to go thanks to successive victories over Middlesbrough, Rotherham United and Stoke City.
However, the South London side have since taken one point from the last 12 on offer and are now effectively battling for a top-half finish.
Rowett will be disappointed with his side's recent form, having lost by three goals at home to Swansea City and Bournemouth, as well as going down 1-0 at Watford last time out.
The Lions' only point since April 5 came in a goalless draw with Brentford, though not since under Neil Harris in March 2019 have they lost three league games in a row.
While Millwall can finish as high as eighth if results go their way, the best Bristol City can hope for is a 13th-place finish, though even that looks highly unlikely.
The Robins have endured a poor campaign, with experienced boss Nigel Pearson not quite being able to turn things around at Ashton Gate.
© Reuters
Still, reports this week suggest that Pearson - currently under contract for two more games - will be handed a three-year deal by City in the coming days.
City have games with Millwall and Brentford to conclude the campaign, but focus will already be on the summer window as 13 players - and Pearson - are out of contract next month.
Pearson's side are winless in eight matches, losing the last two of those 2-1 to Wycombe Wanderers and 3-2 at home to Luton Town.
City have performed better on their travels this term, with their return of 27 points from 22 away games one point less than Millwall have accrued in the same number of home games.
The Robins have already won at The Den this season, in fact, prevailing 3-0 in January's FA Cup fourth-round tie.
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
- L
- L
- D
- D
- L
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Millwall are without Shaun Hutchinson, Ryan Leonard and Murray Wallace for Saturday's clash at The Den.
Alex Pearce sat out the narrow loss to Watford last weekend, but he could come back into the side here in place of Mahlon Romeo.
Kenneth Zohore is another who is pushing for a recall to the side, which could be bad news for Tom Bradshaw, who is without a goal in 17 matches.
As for Bristol City, they are without a whole host of players for this trip to the capital - Andreas Weimann, Chris Martin and Jay Dasilva among them.
Kasey Palmer and Antoine Semenyo were named among the subs for the defeat to Luton last week, but both men could come into the side here.
That is not likely to be at the expense of Nakhi Wells, who has netted six goals in nine games against Millwall in all competitions.
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Bialkowski; Evans, Pearce, Cooper; Romeo, Wallace, Kieftenbeld, Mitchell, Malone; Zohore, Bennett
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
Bentley; Hunt, Vyner, Kalas, Rowe; Lansbury, Nagy, Bakinson; Semenyo, Wells, Palmer
We say: Millwall 1-1 Bristol City
Both sides are in bad form and have little left to play for on the face of it heading into the penultimate round of fixtures.
Millwall won the reverse fixture 2-0, but they have not completed a league double against City since 1992-93 and we can see that run being prolonged with a draw here.
Top tip
Daniel Lewis
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 42.02%. A win for Bristol City had a probability of 29.07% and a draw had a probability of 28.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Millwall win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.7%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (8.38%) and 2-1 (8.09%). The likeliest Bristol City win was 0-1 (10.82%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.23%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Millwall would win this match.
