Reading and Brentford square off in the Championship on Wednesday evening looking to strengthen their bid for automatic promotion to the Premier League.
While the visitors currently occupy second place in the standings, the Royals are just six points adrift of the form team in the division.
Match preview
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Like in their previous games against Wycombe Wanderers and Bristol City, a slow start against Middlesbrough put Brentford at risk of losing their lengthy unbeaten streak in the Championship.
However, the Bees were able to overturn an early deficit at the Riverside Stadium to prevail by a 4-1 scoreline, making it 20 matches without defeat in the second tier.
The victory in the North-East came less than 24 hours after leaders Norwich City had lost out to Swansea City, and two points now separate first and third in the table.
While Thomas Frank will be focused on taking one game at a time, he will have on eye on the bigger picture, particularly with their next opponents having the potential to make it a four-horse race.
Ivan Toney scored two more goals at the weekend, taking his tally to 22 strikes from 27 appearances in the Championship this season.
Lucas Joao has been responsible for netting a significant portion of Reading's goals with 15 coming from just 21 outings.
Nevertheless, the Royals are recording too many goalless draws, with their third in six matches coming at Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.
Each of those stalemates has come away from the Madejski Stadium, but Veljko Paunovic will feel that his players could have achieved more on their travels since the turn of the year.
On a positive note, a seven-game unbeaten run has given Reading an eight-point cushion in the standings, giving them the platform to perform with some freedom when attempting to inflict Brentford's first league defeat since October.
Reading Championship form: DWWDWD
Reading form (all competitions): WLWDWD
Brentford Championship form: WWDWWW
Brentford form (all competitions): WLDWWW
Team News
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Paunovic may consider handing a recall to Yakou Meite after his impact as a substitute against Stoke.
However, with the attacker having only recently returned from injury, John Swift may retain his place in the side.
Bryan Mbeumo is pushing for a return to the Brentford XI having marked his return from injury with an assist against Middlesbrough.
The Frenchman could replace either Tariqe Fosu-Henry or Sergi Canos in what could be the only alteration made by Frank.
Reading possible starting lineup:
Cabral; Holmes, Morrison, McIntyre, Richards; Rinomhota, Laurent; Olise, Swift, Ejaria; Joao
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Raya; Dalsgaard, Pinnock, Sorensen, Henry; Jensen, Janelt, Ghoddos; Mbeumo, Toney, Canos
We say: Reading 1-1 Brentford
Both managers will have been relieved to have an extra day of recovery ahead of one of their most important matches of the season. We feel that could play into the favour of the visitors, who should have enough freshness in their legs to earn a share of the spoils.
Top betting tip
Darren Plant
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 Brentford win with a probability of 52.94%. A draw had a probability of 25.1% and a win for Reading had a probability of 21.94%.
The most likely scoreline for a Brentford win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.83%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.21%) and 1-2 (9.46%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.88%), while for a Reading win it was 1-0 (7.47%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Brentford would win this match.
