Sunderland continue their push for promotion to the Premier League this weekend as they host Millwall in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Heading into the weekend, the hosts have a comfortable 12-point gap in the standings between themselves and the teams currently outside the playoff zone.
Match preview
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The playoffs appear to be the most likely route to the Premier League next season for Sunderland as the Black Cats are currently 11 points behind both Sheffield United and Leeds United, who occupy the automatic promotion spots.
Defeats to Leeds and Hull City in consecutive weeks in February proved to be damaging to Sunderland's automatic promotion hopes, and although they recovered with wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff City, they went into the international break with one point out of a possible four from games against Preston North End and Coventry City.
The Black Cats have been performing above expectations under Regis Le Bris, who arrived at the club from Lorient last summer.
Despite having eight games of the season remaining, the club have already matched their points total from the 2022-23 campaign when they reached the playoffs.
Reaching the playoffs for the second time in three seasons would be an achievement in its own right, but having finished 16th last season, Le Bris can be happy with his first season in English football.
Had the trio of Leeds, Sheffield United and Burnley not been in irresistible form throughout this campaign, Sunderland may well have been even closer to automatic promotion, but that appears unlikely at this stage of the season.
The hosts have been excellent in both attack and defence this season, with the fifth-strongest defensive record, as well as the fourth-best attack in the division.
After their recent blip, the hosts will be looking to end the campaign on a high as they continue to push for Premier League football for the first time since 2016-17.
The Black Cats have only lost once at home in the league during this campaign, and they have the third-best home record in the Championship.
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This weekend, they come up against a Millwall team that have the sixth-strongest away record in the league, with 23 points from 19 road matches.
The Lions are one of many sides that are still hopeful of reaching the playoffs this season, and despite sitting in 11th heading into this match, they are only six points off the playoff zone.
With eight games to play, the visitors still have reason to believe that they can find an unlikely route into the playoffs.
Despite there being an 18-point gap between Sunderland and Millwall heading into this weekend's clash, if the visitors can find a way to make the playoffs, they will feel that they have as much chance as anybody in the mix for promotion.
Recent defeats against Bristol City and Leeds have demonstrated their difficulty in overcoming teams that are also in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League, which may prove problematic should they reach the playoffs.
This weekend, they have the opportunity to prove their promotion credentials, and they may feel it is a good time to face Sunderland.
The visitors have won two out of their last three away league games, as well as three of their last five games overall in the division.
Millwall have been excellent at the back this season, conceding 39 times in 38 games to date, which is good enough for the sixth-strongest defensive record in the league, and they have only conceded two more goals than their opponents this weekend.
However, at the other end of the pitch, they have only scored 37 times, with just Luton Town scoring fewer times this year.
The two sides shared the spoils when they met earlier in the season, with Femi Azeez scoring a late equaliser to cancel out Aaron Connolly's early opener in a 1-1 draw.
Millwall have a good recent record against Sunderland, and they are unbeaten in their last four games against the Black Cats.
Included in that run is their 1-0 triumph at the Stadium of Light last April, when Daniel Ballard's own goal helped the Lions to all three points on their most recent visit to Sunderland.
Team News
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Sunderland have several injury worries ahead of this clash, with Dennis Cirkin and Enzo Le Fee expected to miss out due to hamstring issues.
Aji Alese is out for the season with a leg injury, while Ian Poveda, Salis Abdul Samed, Ahmed Abdullahi and Jayden Danns are also out for this clash.
In better news for the Black Cats, Leo Hjelde has recovered from a minor injury issue, and he is expected to be in contention for this weekend's match.
Meanwhile, Azeez, who netted for Millwall against Sunderland earlier this season, is not expected to feature due to a hamstring issue.
Elsewhere, Macauley Langstaff (leg) is back in training, but he is not expected to feature this weekend, while George Honeyman (groin) is a doubt, and Camiel Neghli remains sidelined with an ankle injury.
Sunderland possible starting lineup:
Patterson; Hume, Mepham, O'Nien, Hjelde; Mundle, Neil, Bellingham, Roberts, Rigg; Isidor
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Jensen; Bryan, Cooper, Tanganga, Crama; Emakhu, Mitchell, De Norre, Bangura-Williams; Coburn, Ivanovic
We say: Sunderland 1-1 Millwall
Millwall are capable of getting something from this match, and although they ideally need three points, we think that this will end in a draw.
Three of the last four meetings between the two sides have ended in a draw, and we think that this trend will continue this weekend.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Tom Humphrey
