West Brom vs Portsmouth: Team news, line-ups, form guide and full preview for Hawthorns clash
Portsmouth visit West Brom this weekend for what is likely to be one of their tougher matches in the Championship this season.
West Brom are one of only three sides to have won both of their opening Championship fixtures, and they’ve played some tasty football during those games.
Pompey won their first away game of the season against Oxford, but this should be a tougher proposition for John Mousinho’s men.
Below, Pompey News rounds up the team news ahead of the game and offers a prediction for the score.
Form guide
West Bromwich Albion have beaten Blackburn and Wrexham so far in the Championship. In between those matches, they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties against Derby.
Portsmouth won their opening league game against Oxford, but have followed that up with 2-1 defeats against Reading in the Carabao Cup and Norwich in the league.
Team news
Callum Lang injured his hamstring against Norwich and is expected to be out of action for up to eight weeks. Florian Bianchini will replace him on the right wing.
Apart from that change, Mousinho is expected to keep faith with the team that started against Norwich
Josh Knight completed his transfer from Hannover 96 on Thursday, but it seems unlikely he’ll be thrown straight into the starting XI.
West Brom may hand a debut to Krystian Bielik, while Mikey Johnston is also likely to start following his positive impact from the substitutes’ bench against Wrexham.
Portsmouth predicted XI: Schmid, Williams, Poole, Shaughnessy, Ogilvie, Swift, Dozzell, Bianchini, Segecic, Murphy, Bishop.
West Brom predicted XI: Griffiths, Furlong, Phillips, Bielik, Styles, Molumby, Mowatt, Price, Fellows, Johnston, Heggebo
Prediction: West Brom 3-0 Portsmouth
Portsmouth were battered 5-1 by West Brom at The Hawthorns last season.
They were 4-0 down at half-time, and that match was widely regarded as Pompey’s worst performance of the entire campaign.
Mousinho has a stronger squad to choose from this time around, but it could still be a difficult afternoon for the Blues.
Pompey should put up a stronger fight in this match, and they’ll try to keep it tight for as long as possible, but it will be tough to contend with the likes of Isaac Price, Tom Fellows and Mikey Johnston for a full 90 minutes.
If the Baggies can keep these three fit all season, they’ll unlock most Championship defences and have a great chance of fighting for promotion this season.
Sign up for the Pompey News WhatsApp channel and turn on notifications to have all the latest, breaking Portsmouth news sent straight to your phone.