With the Premier League returning in less than two weeks' time, Fulham and West Ham United face off in a mid-season friendly at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
While the Cottagers beat Portimonense in their most recent warm-up match, the Hammers have secured successive friendly victories over Cambridge United and Udinese.
Match preview
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During the World Cup break, Marco Silva took his Fulham squad – without the presence of six players competing in Qatar – to his native Portugal for a week's long mid-season training camp in the Algarve.
The Cottagers took part in a behind-closed-doors friendly with Primeira Liga outfit Portimonense on December 4 and secured a 3-2 victory, courtesy of a Callum McFarlane brace and a header from Layvin Kurzawa.
Fulham returned back home on Monday, with the majority of their World Cup representatives reporting back to first-team training ahead of their Premier League return on Boxing Day against Crystal Palace.
Silva's side failed to win each of their last three top-flight matches before the World Cup break, but they remain inside the top half of the table, sitting ninth and just two points behind the European positions.
Fulham will now be looking to build up their match fitness and put in a strong showing on Saturday against West Ham, who they lost 3-1 against at the London Stadium at the beginning of October.
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West Ham headed into the World Cup break off the back of a disappointing run of form, losing four of their last five matches across all competitions including each of their last three in the Premier League.
However, David Moyes's side have regained their confidence during their mid-season preparations with back-to-back wins over Cambridge United and Udinese, beating the former 4-2 at Abbey Stadium on December 6 before securing a 3-1 victory away against the latter last Saturday.
Indeed, West Ham made their first-ever trip to Udine last weekend and strikes from Said Benrahma, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio helped the Hammers come from behind to defeat their Italian counterparts.
Moyes's men – who currently sit 16th in the Premier League table and just one point above the relegation zone – will now be looking to build on their positive momentum with one final warm-up triumph over Fulham, a side they are unbeaten against in their last five meetings, before their return to top-flight action against league leaders Arsenal on Boxing Day.
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Team News
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Fulham duo Aleksandar Mitrovic and Joao Palhinha are unlikely to feature on Saturday following their World Cup exploits, while Daniel James, Harry Wilson, Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson have all trained and will be pushing to feature.
Manor Solomon has also returned to training having missed the majority of the season with a knee injury and the Israeli winger will hope to get some minutes under his belt against West Ham. Neeskens Kebano, meanwhile, remains out after rupturing his Achilles before the World Cup.
Silva used 22 players in the friendly win over Portimonense and he is expected to rotate his side again throughout the match on Saturday.
As for West Ham, Kurt Zouma and Maxwel Cornet remain out with injuries – the former of whom underwent knee surgery at the end of last month – while Nayef Aguerd sustained a groin problem on World Cup duty with Morocco, but the centre-back is hoping to recover in time to face Arsenal on Boxing Day.
Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola is still with the France squad as they prepare for Sunday's World Cup final, so either Lukasz Fabianski or Darren Randolph is expected to start between the sticks, while Declan Rice and Lucas Paqueta are set to be given more time off following their efforts in Qatar.
The likes of Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna, Tomas Soucek, Jarrod Bowen and Gianluca Scamacca, who all started against Udinese, are in contention to feature again against Fulham.
Fulham possible starting lineup:
Leno; Tete, Tosin, Diop, Kurzawa; Reed, Cairney; Decordova-Reid, Pereira, McFarlane; Vinicius
West Ham United possible starting lineup:
Fabianski; Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Soucek, Lanzini, Fornals; Benrahma, Scamacca, Bowen
We say: Fulham 2-2 West Ham United
While both sides will be keen to end their mid-season preparations on a high with a victory, the main purpose of Saturday's contest is to build up match fitness ahead of a hectic festive fixture schedule.
A number of first-team regulars are set to be on show for both clubs, but with little to separate the two teams, an entertaining score draw could be on the cards at Craven Cottage.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Oliver Thomas
