Cardiff City will be aiming to maintain their unbeaten start to the 2021-22 campaign when they take on Millwall in South Wales on Saturday afternoon.

The Bluebirds are unbeaten in four games in all competitions this term and are ninth after three Championship games, while Millwall find themselves three points worse off in 19th.

Match preview

Cardiff City manager Mick McCarthy pictured on February 16, 2021 © Reuters

After a slightly underwhelming 1-1 draw at home to Barnsley on the opening weekend of the new season, Cardiff have since collected a respectable four points from two away games.

Mick McCarthy's side were good value for their 2-0 win at Blackpool last weekend and followed that up with a dramatic 2-2 draw at Peterborough United in midweek.

The Bluebirds looked dead a buried in a match they trailed by two goals heading into the final 10 minutes, only for Aden Flint's double to snatch an unlikely point.

City were poor for 75 minutes of the contest, but they still managed to avoid defeat and are one of seven teams yet to taste defeat in the second tier this term.

Millwall manager Gary Rowett pictured in February 2021 © Reuters

Millwall also went unbeaten through their first three games, drawing with Queens Park Rangers and Blackburn Rovers in the league, either side of beating Portsmouth in the EFL Cup.

However, the Lions came unstuck at home to London rivals Fulham in the week, with Aleksandar Mitrovic and Fabio Carvalho's early goal at The Den proving enough for the visitors.

Benik Afobe's late header gave Gary Rowett's side hope, but Millwall were second best pretty much throughout the match and can have no complaints.

That loss puts a different slant on things, as Lions fans will point out that they are winless in three in the league this term and need to put that right sooner rather than later.

The bad news for Millwall is that they are winless in eight away league matches against Cardiff, stretching back to a 1-0 win in February 2005 in which there were three red cards.

Cardiff City Championship form:

Cardiff City form (all competitions):

Millwall Championship form:

Millwall form (all competitions):

Team News

Cardiff City's Kieffer Moore celebrates scoring their first goal against Reading in the Championship on April 16, 2021 © Reuters

McCarthy has made just one change between matches in the league this term, but that could change here given how poor his side were for large parts against Peterborough.

Kieffer Moore has had another few days to regain fitness and is in strong contention for a first league start of the season here.

Mark Harris and Rubin Colwill helped swing the game in Cardiff's favour against Peterborough and will also both surely be in McCarthy's thoughts to face Millwall.

Rowett made a couple of changes to Millwall's starting lineup last time out, meanwhile, by bringing in Mahlon Romeo and Ryan Leonard for Danny McNamara and George Evans.

Romeo was replaced at the interval by Matt Smith with the Lions chasing a route back into the game, and Rowett may well opt to line up slightly differently on Saturday.

The visitors have been without injured pair Mason Bennett and Shaun Hutchinson, but they otherwise has a full squad of players to choose from for this trip to South Wales.

Cardiff City possible starting lineup:
Phillips; Morrison, Flint, Nelson; Ng, Pack, Vaulks, Bagan; Harris, Colwill; Moore

Millwall possible starting lineup:
Bialkowski; Ballard, Cooper, Wallace; McNamara, Kieftenbeld, Evans, Saville, Malone; Wallace, Afobe

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We say: Cardiff City 1-1 Millwall

These sides have drawn four of the six matches that they have played in the league this season, while the last seven Championship meetings between them have finished all square.

That includes a couple of 1-1 draws last season, a scoreline that we can see being matched at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.

Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 2.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

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 39.79%. A win for Millwall had a probability of 31.83% and a draw had a probability of 28.4%.

The most likely scoreline for a Cardiff City win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.08%) and 2-0 (7.61%). The likeliest Millwall win was 0-1 (10.82%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.22%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 3.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Cardiff City would win this match.