📏 Form Guide

Blackburn Rovers

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Blackburn Rovers, who won their previous game, will hope for a similar result following the 0-1 FA Cup victory over Middlesbrough.

The only scorer from Blackburn Rovers was Andreas Weimann (70').

It’s not been often in recent games that Blackburn Rovers have kept a clean sheet. It will be a concern for them that Blackburn Rovers have been scored against in 5 of their previous 6 matches, giving up 6 goals along the way. Such a trend won’t necessarily be continued into this game, however.

Going into this game, the form guide shows that Blackburn Rovers:

• are unbeaten in the league by Portsmouth in their last 5 games.
• haven’t won at home in the past 3 matches in the league.

Portsmouth

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After a loss in their previous game against Wycombe Wanderers in FA Cup competition, Portsmouth and their travelling supporters will be hoping that they can get a better result in this one.

Brandon Hanlan (17') and Sonny Bradley (27') scored for Wycombe Wanderers.

The stats don’t lie, and Portsmouth have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 matches, conceding 9 goals overall. In defence, Portsmouth just haven’t been too solid at all.

Looking at their past form shows that Portsmouth:

• have not registered a win against Blackburn Rovers when having played them away from home in the previous 3 matches in the league.
• are without a win away from home in their last 8 league matches. Their travelling support will be needed here, for sure.

↔️ Head to head

A glance at their prior head to head meetings stretching back to 30/11/2008 tells us that Blackburn Rovers have won 4 of these & Portsmouth 1, with the number of draws being 1.

17 goals were scored between the two sides in this period, with 12 of them for Rovers and 5 coming from Pompey. That is an average goals per game value of 2.83.

The last league meeting featuring these clubs was League One match day 33 on 13/02/2018 when it ended Portsmouth 1-2 Blackburn Rovers.

The match was refereed by Oliver Langford.

📰 Team News: Blackburn Rovers

Arnór Sigurdsson (Thigh problems) and Hayden Carter (Knee surgery) won’t be available for Blackburn Rovers manager John Eustace.

In our view, Rovers should use a 4-2-3-1 formation in the match featuring Aynsley Pears, Callum Brittain, Dominic Hyam, Danny Batth, Owen Beck, John Buckley, Sondre Tronstad, A. Cozier-Duberry, Todd Cantwell, Tyrhys Dolan and Makhtar Gueye.

ℹ️ Team News: Portsmouth

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has not got a full squad to pick from. Ibane Bowat (Patellar tendon rupture) and Anthony Scully (Ankle injury) are those who can’t be considered.

We are inclined to think that Pompey appear most likely to elect for a 4-2-3-1 system, settling for Nicolas Schmid, Zak Swanson, Ryley Towler, Rob Atkinson, Connor Ogilvie, Freddie Potts, Andre Dozzell, Matt Ritchie, Callum Lang, Joshua Murphy and Colby Bishop.

🔮 Prediction

We believe that Blackburn Rovers will, in all likelihood, be able to create a decent number of chances and shots on target.

Conversely, Portsmouth won’t find it easy finding the net themselves although we do reckon that they could well end up being dangerous at times, too.

We’re predicting a decent 3-1 winning margin for Blackburn Rovers when all’s said and done.

Our expert partners are tipping over 1.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Lucas Pereira, 19:03 15/01/2025