Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town take a break from their Premier League promotion bid on Monday night with a showdown in the FA Cup fifth round.
While both clubs find themselves on unbeaten runs, Huddersfield have gone as many as 18 matches without suffering a defeat in all competitions.
Match preview
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At the start of the season, few people would have predicted that Forest and Huddersfield would be two of the form teams heading into March, particularly the Terriers after they narrowly avoided relegation in 2020-21.
However, since Steve Cooper was named as Forest head coach on September 21, these two sides are second and third respectively, with only runaway Championship leaders sitting ahead of them.
Overall, Huddersfield are second, having played several matches more than all of their rivals, and Forest are eighth, but the form table gives you an idea of the consistency that Cooper and Carlos Corberan have brought to their respective sides.
On Friday night, Huddersfield made light work of bottom-placed Peterborough United, prevailing by a 3-0 scoreline to record their four successive victory in the second tier.
The Yorkshire outfit now have nine wins and seven draws from their last 16 Championship outings, but there is still plenty of work ahead if they want to remain in contention for a return to the top flight.
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Ahead of the weekend's fixtures, seventh-placed Luton Town were eight points adrift with three matches remaining, and it keeps the pressure on Corberan and his squad ahead of a testing set of fixtures.
Forest were also in action on Friday night, overcoming the disappointment of a missed penalty to claim a last-gasp 1-1 draw at promotion rivals Sheffield United.
Cooper's team remain as outsiders to secure a top-six position come the end of the season, but Ryan Yates's late goal provides them with momentum ahead of attempting to set up a mouth-watering meeting with Liverpool.
The East Midlands outfit have already defeated Premier League opposition on two occasions this season, edging out Arsenal in the third round before a dominant 4-1 triumph over county rivals Leicester City in the last 32.
As for Huddersfield, they came from behind to beat Burnley at Turf Moor at the start of January, backing up that success with a narrow 1-0 win over Barnsley in the following round.
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Team News
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Forest will be able to call upon goalkeeper Brice Samba, who has completed a three-match ban for his red card against Stoke City last month.
Max Lowe will also return at left wing-back having been ineligible to face his parent club on Friday night, potentially leaving Jack Colback to drop down to the substitutes' bench.
Cooper may also opt to freshen up his team in the final third with Joe Lolley, Alex Mighten and Sam Surridge all possible options.
While Levi Colwill is expected to be absent for Huddersfield due to testing positive for coronavirus, Corberan may still look to bring in some fresh legs.
Jonathan Hogg and Carel Eiting are both options in midfield, and Pipa could come into contention if Corberan opts to revert to a back three to match their hosts.
Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Samba; Worrall, Cook, McKenna; Spence, Yates, Garner, Lowe; Zinckernagel; Johnson, Davis
Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:
Nicholls; Turton, Pearson, Lees, Toffolo; Hogg, O'Brien; Thomas, Sinani, Holmes; Ward
We say: Nottingham Forest 2-1 Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield have been superb for three months, making it difficult to back against them regardless of the opposition. However, we are going to do just that, with the City Ground atmosphere and the carrot of hosting Liverpool helping Forest to a victory at extra time.
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 Nottingham Forest win with a probability of 47.98%. A draw had a probability of 26.1% and a win for Huddersfield Town had a probability of 25.92%.
The most likely scoreline for a Nottingham Forest win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.16%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.18%) and 2-0 (9.03%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.37%), while for a Huddersfield Town win it was 0-1 (8.34%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.2% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 2-1 win for Nottingham Forest in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Nottingham Forest.
