On Good Friday, West Bromwich Albion travels to Millwall with the intention of securing a Championship promotion spot through victory.
Millwall is currently in 16th place in the standings, having just emerged from the relegation zone, while the Baggies are in fifth place.
Since the beginning of the year, West Brom had not won back-to-back games in the Championship until the matches played prior to the international break.
This is no longer the case as the Baggies defeated Bristol City and Huddersfield Town, respectively, to give themselves an eight-point lead in the playoff race.
Carlos Corberan will emphasise to his team that they cannot afford to be complacent because the chasing pack has a match in hand. However, since West Brom has only lost one of their last ten games in the second division, that shouldn’t be the case.
Although West Brom’s loss to Southampton at home was only their third league loss in 19 meetings at The Hawthorns, their performance away from their West Midlands home has gone unnoticed.
Their last five such games have seen two wins and three draws, with the victories coming at Plymouth Argyle and Huddersfield. Despite this, the team has still lost more away games this season—seven—than it has won—six.
In the meantime, Neil Harris is doing a fantastic job in the Millwall dugout, having amassed 10 points out of a possible 15 since his return to The Den.
The Lions’ progress has been so great that their 2-0 loss to Leeds United, the league leaders, prior to the international break, was truly disappointing.
However, the East Londoners’ four previous games had resulted in three victories and two clean sheets, which was sufficient to propel them four points clear of the drop zone.
Although Millwall has the fourth-worst home record in the division, they have won their last two meetings against Watford and Birmingham City, both on home soil, 1-0.
Millwall Championship Form: LWWDWL
Bromwich Albion Championship Form: WDWDWW
Team News
Millwall’s roster is probably going to be relatively unchanged, with Duncan Watmore’s return to replace Brooke Norton-Cuffy the most likely change.
The midfield and custodian should continue to start even though Matija Sarkic and George Saville have been away on international duty with their respective countries.
Assuming the latter recovers from the calf injury that kept him out of action for Tuesday’s friendly between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Additionally, Corberan has had to deal with players leaving for international duty; Mikey Johnston is with the Republic of Ireland, and Tom Fellows competes for England at the youth level.
Nonetheless, it is anticipated that both players will start on the wings in an unaltered lineup, with Andreas Weimann moving back to the bench as a substitute following his ineligibility to play against Bristol City.
Millwall Possible Starting Lineup:
Sarkicic, Leonard, Tanganga, Cooper, Bryan; Honeyman, Mitchell, Saville, Watmore; Obafemi, Flemming.
West Brom Starting Possible Lineup:
Palmer; Furlong, Kipre, Pieters, Townsend; Yokuslu, Mowatt; Fellows, Diangana, Johnston; Wallace.
Prediction
We say West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Millwall.
Out of all the teams vying for a postseason berth, West Brom seems to have found their groove at the ideal moment. We are supporting the Baggies to fight their way to a hard-fought victory at The Den, despite Millwall’s recent improvements.
Jonathan Jonathan