Bournemouth will be looking to maintain their superb run of form in their pursuit of a playoff place when they travel to Millwall on Wednesday evening.
The Cherries have won six Championship games in a row to move into fifth, while Millwall's top-six hopes are effectively over after two games without a win.
Match preview
© Reuters
Jonathan Woodgate's side are by far and away the most in-form side in the second tier, having taken 18 points from the last 18 on offer over the past month.
For comparison, Birmingham City and Watford are next on that list with 13 points from their last six matches.
Not since April 2013 when in League One have Bournemouth enjoyed a better run of form, which Woodgate will be hoping to prolong heading into the playoffs.
Bournemouth are still not quite guaranteed a place in the top six, but their 3-1 win at promoted Norwich City on Saturday leaves them seven points clear of Reading in seventh.
The Cherries have fourth-placed Brentford to face later in the week, so a couple of defeats in the coming days may just set up a nervy finale to the campaign.
© Reuters
Millwall are themselves not officially out of the promotion picture just yet, but they need to win each of their remaining four games and hope the sides above them lose all theirs.
That is all but impossible, but Gary Rowett will be pleased with his side's campaign on the whole, even if they head into this game on the back of two games without a win.
The Lions went down 3-0 to Swansea City last time out on home soil and followed that up with a 0-0 draw at Brentford last time out.
That was a credible point at the Brentford Community Stadium, with Marcus Forss missing the best of the hosts' chances as they slipped up in the race for automatic promotion.
On the back of the loss to Swansea, Millwall are now looking to avoid suffering back-to-back home league losses for the first time since March 2019.
- L
- W
- W
- W
- L
- D
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Shaun Hutchinson and Ryan Leonard have both been ruled out for the home side, who may be tempted to tweak things slightly with little left to play for.
Young midfielder Billy Mitchell dropped out of the side against Brentford but may return here, while Jon Dadi Bodvarsson is another pushing for inclusion.
Striker Matt Smith has been directly involved in four goals in his last four league games against Bournemouth - three goals and one assist - but he will not start this game.
As for Bournemouth, Shane Long will not play again in the regular season because of an ankle injury, while Lewis Cook is another confirmed absentee for this trip to the capital.
Woodgate will be tempted to go with the same lineup that saw off Norwich last time out, but Sam Surridge may come into his thoughts after replacing Jefferson Lerma at half time.
Arnaut Danjuma scored a superb strike at Carrow Road to make it 14 league goals for the campaign, and he will more than likely get the nod out on the left again here.
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Bialkowski; M. Wallace, Pearce, Cooper; McNamara, Mitchell, Woods, Evans, Malone; J. Wallace, Bennett
Bournemouth possible starting lineup:
Begovic; Smith, Cook, Carter-Vickers, Kelly; Lerma, Billing, Pearson; Stanislas, Solanke, Danjuma
We say: Millwall 0-1 Bournemouth
It has been more than two years since Millwall lost back-to-back home matches, but we can see that being the case on Wednesday evening.
Bournemouth have been in fantastic form and have the quality to maintain that run into the playoffs, with another win here all but confirming a top-six spot.
Top tip
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 Bournemouth win with a probability of 48.82%. A draw had a probability of 26.6% and a win for Millwall had a probability of 24.56%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bournemouth win was 0-1 with a probability of 13.24%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (9.59%) and 1-2 (9.05%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.49%), while for a Millwall win it was 1-0 (8.63%). The actual scoreline of 1-4 was predicted with a 1.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Bournemouth would win this match.
