Millwall v Portsmouth: Manager confirms key pair to miss out
Portsmouth’s upcoming game against Millwall has taken a twist as two players have been confirmed as unavailable.
Pompey are looking to take the momentum gained from defeating Blackburn Rovers 1-0 in their most recent outing with them to The Den on Saturday (April 5) when they face the Londoners.
John Mousinho’s men pulled themselves further away from the relegation zone last weekend by creating a seven-point gap over the bottom three, and the focus is on retaining or extending that.
An away trip against Millwall is never a simple task due to the intimidating atmosphere, and Pompey’s poor away record will not be calming anyone’s nerves ahead of the fixture.
Millwall and Portsmouth have been impacted
Portsmouth have been handed some positive news several days before kick-off against Millwall, though, as their opponents are going to be missing two key players due to injury.
Millwall boss Alex Neil confirmed that club-record signing Camiel Neghli is going to be unavailable for the next two weeks after suffering an ankle injury in their loss against Crystal Palace on March 1.
Neil has also revealed that Femi Azeez will also be out of action for their clash against Pompey, leaving Millwall thin on options out wide.
Neil admitted that they “will be lucky if they make the last three or four games,” in what is going to be a significant blow to his squad.
| Championship | Played | GD | Points |
| 17. Portsmouth | 39 | -14 | 45 |
| 18. Stoke | 39 | -12 | 42 |
| 19. Oxford United | 39 | -17 | 42 |
| 20. Hull | 39 | -9 | 41 |
| 21. Cardiff | 39 | -20 | 40 |
| 22. Derby | 39 | -11 | 38 |
Neghli only joined the Lions toward the end of the January transfer window, and after costing Millwall a club-record fee, his loss will be felt.
Neil is now going to have limited options out wide against Portsmouth, which is something that Mousinho will be trying to take advantage of.
The supercomputer has backed Portsmouth to survive
Portsmouth have been involved in the relegation battle for most of this season, with the Blues doing everything in their power to fight the odds to try and stay afloat in the second tier of English football.
The Opta supercomputer recently predicted that Pompey are likely to finish 17th this season, which is a position that fans would no doubt be delighted with.
The fixture against Millwall was also predicted to be one of their tougher games during the run in, with Pompey having quite a challenging set of fixtures ahead of them.