Cardiff City will be looking to maintain their good form and tighten their grip on sixth place in the Championship when they play host to Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday evening.
The Bluebirds have gone six matches without defeat and are in possession of the final playoff spot, eight points better off than out-of-form Rovers.
Match preview
© Reuters
Blackburn won their first game back after the Championship season resumed last month - a 3-1 home victory over Bristol City - to close to within one point of the playoffs.
Since then, however, they have lost to Wigan Athletic, Barnsley and Leeds United, seeing them drop down to 11th place in the division.
That is the position Cardiff occupied on their return to action, but they have been in superb form over the past few weeks and are well on course for a top-six finish.
Going further back, it is four wins and two draws for the Welsh outfit in their last six matches, not only seeing them climb into the playoffs but also build up a three-point buffer on the chasing pack.
The most recent of those victories came away at Severnside rivals Bristol City on Saturday, with Danny Ward latching onto fellow substitute Lee Tomlin's pass to fire home a late winner.
© Reuters
Neil Harris's men now face three successive games against sides chasing them down, though, starting with this visit of Blackburn.
Anything other than three points for Rovers will end their slim hopes of promotion, and recent history suggests that they will be lucky to come away from South Wales with a win.
The Blue and Whites have failed to win any of their last 10 encounters with Cardiff since a 3-2 FA Cup win in January 2005.
Blackburn are also winless in four matches on their travels, losing the last three of those without scoring a single goal.
Cardiff have not exactly been in rampant form on home soil, though, having picked up maximum points only once in six league matches at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Cardiff City's Championship form: DWWWDW
Blackburn Rovers' Championship form: DLWLLL
Team News
© Reuters
Cardiff's large squad has come to good use since the restart, with Harris tending to make the right substitutions at the right time.
That was the case again on Saturday as Ward and Tomlin linked up for the winner at Ashton Gate, and the pair should be fit enough to start this clash against Blackburn.
Robert Glatzel is pushing for a recall after recovering from a head injury, while Marlon Pack is an option to come into central midfield should Harris wish to freshen things up.
As for Blackburn, Darragh Lenihan was back involved last time out after missing the trip to Barnsley due to the birth of his son.
Lewis Travis and Sam Gallagher also returned to the side for the defeat to Leeds, but Stewart Downing and Dominic Samuel will be hoping to earn recalls.
Elsewhere, Adam Armstrong scored an impressive free kick against league leaders Leeds and will be looking to add to his tally of 13 goals this term.
Cardiff City possible starting lineup:
Smithies; Sanderson, Morrison, Nelson, Bennett; Ralls, Bacuna; Mendez-Laing, Tomlin, Murphy; Ward
Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:
Walton; Nyambe, Lenihan, Adarabioyo, Bennett; Downing, Johnson, Rothwell; Samuel, Gallagher, Armstrong
We say: Cardiff City 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
Cardiff have momentum on their side heading into the final five games of the Championship season. Blackburn, by comparison, have run out of steam and we are expecting their poor away streak to continue on Tuesday.
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 Cardiff City win with a probability of 41.58%. A win for Blackburn Rovers had a probability of 32.7% and a draw had a probability of 25.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Cardiff City win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.77%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.81%) and 2-0 (7.05%). The likeliest Blackburn Rovers win was 0-1 (8.47%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.21%). The actual scoreline of 2-3 was predicted with a 2.3% likelihood.
Germany
Switzerland
Hungary
Scotland
Spain
Italy
Croatia
Albania
England
Denmark
Slovenia
Serbia
Austria
France
Netherlands
Poland
Romania
Belgium
Slovakia
Ukraine
Portugal
Turkey
Georgia
Czech Republic
