Blackburn vs Birmingham Prediction: Blues are already building momentum

Blackburn Rovers welcome Birmingham City to Ewood Park on Saturday (15:00 BST) for their first home game of the Championship season. Rovers suffered a defeat on the opening weekend as they fell to a 1-0 loss at West Bromwich Albion.

Birmingham were held to a draw at home against Ipswich Town due to a late penalty, but the Blues have looked brilliant in their first two games of the season (including Carabao Cup). Below you will find my Blackburn vs Birmingham predictions, accompanied by the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Blackburn are still coping with injuries to defender Hayden Carter and midfielder Adam Forshaw, with both carrying hamstring issues.

Rovers have been handed another blow this week as Club captain Lewis Travis has made clear his desire to reunite with former boss John Eustace at Derby County. As a result, it is unlikely that he will be involved in the squad that welcomes Birmingham on Saturday.

Todd Cantwell will provide a useful option off the bench after returning from injury to feature as a substitute in midweek, and Blackburn will be in need of his creative talents against a well-organised Blues side.

Football Odds

Birmingham have had plenty of positives to take from the first week of the season, with two commanding performances against two promotion hopefuls in Ipswich and Sheffield United.

A couple of players were given a rest against the Blades in the Cup game on Wednesday so goalkeeper Ryan Allsop is expected to come back in for James Beadle,  Phil Neumann is likely to replace Eiran Cashin at centre-back, while Bright Osayi-Samuel may be recalled at right-back.

That last one is a tough call for manager Chris Davies because in the first two games of the season, the two full-backs have been awarded the Player of the Match award by Sky Sports.

Paik Seung-ho should restore his midfield partnership with Tomoki Iwata, and Keshi Anderson should return to the left wing, with Willum Willumsson the most likely candidate to drop to the bench.

Davies said a virus kept Tommy Doyle from starting against Ipswich  but the partnership developing between Jay Stansfield and Kyogo Furuhashi, may see him have to settle for a place on the bench again.

Kanya Fujimoto was named on the bench against Sheffield United, so he may be in contention for some minutes in the coming weeks after overcoming an injury. Fellow new signing Marvin Ducksch is likely to be in contention for some minutes towards the end of the month.

Blackburn vs Birmingham Odds

Blackburn have won their past two home meetings with Birmingham and they are 21/10 to get off the mark this weekend.

The draw is marketed at 11/5, which the visitors experienced against Ipswich last week.

The Blues won 65% (15/23) of their away fixtures in League 1 last term and they are 7/5 to triumph in Lancashire.

If you are seeking further value in backing Birmingham, 47% (7/15) of those wins saw them keep a clean sheet, and they are 13/5 to win to nil, which has an implied probability of 27.8%.

Birmingham to win to nil @ 13/5

And that is exactly what I am going for in my first selection, Yes, I know it's early days in the season but the first two performances from the Blues have been really impressive - and against two of the best teams the Championship has to offer, too.

With no disrespect to Blackburn but this will be deemed a slightly easier challenge for Davies' men, but one that he certainly won't underestimate. Birmingham created an xG of over three against Sheffield United last time out and easily could've scored four or five despite only winning the game 2-1.

The Blades struggled to lay a glove on the Blues' defence, Gustavo Hamer's world-class strike aside, with Sheff U having just one touch in Birmingham's box across the 90 minutes.

This followed Ipswich having just one shot on target against them in the game prior, showing that Birmingham's defensive solidity from last season is continuing. I'm confident in them winning this game against a Rovers team that lost at home to Bradford City in the cup last time out, and I think the visitors will record their first clean sheet of the campaign, too.

Kyogo Furuhashi anytime goalscorer @ 2/1

I've seen enough. We may be two games in but I can already predict Kyogo will score a lot of goals this season. Considering Birmingham's number nine has barely played football in the past seven months, he has looked sharp in his first two starts for the club.

The former Celtic man had a goal disallowed against Ipswich, before hitting the post that set up Stansfield for the opening goal, so his early goal against Sheffield United came to the surprise of no one.

His movement is electric and he will terrorise defences this season. He may have spurned a few opportunities against the Blades but once he is back up to speed, he will be a menace in front of goal - and I think Blackburn will be his next victim.

Offers

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