The 2025-26 Championship season kicks-off on Friday (20:00 BST) with a mammoth game between promotion favourites Birmingham City and Ipswich Town.
The Blues are first to host in this year’s campaign after a record-breaking spell in League One last season.
Meanwhile, Ipswich will be seeking a big win as they look to bounce right back into the Premier League after just one season in the top tier.
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Three of the last four league matches between Birmingham and Ipswich have ended in draws, with the Tractor Boys winning the other 3-1 in February 2024, the most recent meeting between the sides.
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Ipswich Town have won one of their last 19 away league matches against Birmingham (D8 L10), a 1-0 victory in the 2012-13 campaign in Mick McCarthy’s first game in charge.
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Birmingham won the 2024-25 League One title with 34 wins and 111 points, both all-time records in a single season in Football League history. The Blues didn’t lose a single home league game and are unbeaten in 25 overall (W21 D4), only having a longer unbeaten home run between October 1970 and April 1972 (36 games).
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Ipswich Town picked up just 22 points in the Premier League in 2024-25 (W4 D10 L24), their lowest ever in a single league season in their history. In 2025, only Southampton (6) have picked up fewer points than the Tractor Boys (7) among sides in the top four tiers of English football, while they also have the joint worst defensive record (49 goals conceded, level with Mansfield).
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This is the second time Birmingham are playing Ipswich at home in their first league game of the season. The other time was a 3-1 win in 1995-96 – when the Blues were newly promoted to the second tier, and Ipswich had just come down from the Premier League.