{"id":652955,"date":"2025-12-24T20:23:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/652955\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T20:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:23:44","slug":"preview-birmingham-city-vs-derby-county-prediction-team-news-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/652955\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Birmingham City vs Derby County – prediction, team news, lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a difficult match on the road, Birmingham City<\/a> are back at fortress St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park for a Boxing Day clash with Derby County<\/a> in the Championship.<\/p>\n

Blues were dispatched 3-0 by Sheffield United last time out at Bramall Lane, whilst the Rams shared the spoils with relegation-threatened Portsmouth.<\/p>\n

Match preview<\/p>\n

Possessing aims of competing for promotion this season, Birmingham City are being held back from a genuine Premier League push by their woeful away record, with the Second City club extending their winless away run to seven matches at Sheffield United.<\/p>\n

Blues have struggled massively at the beginning of second-tier trips and hit the self-destruct button once again in Yorkshire, with a catalogue of errors allowing the Blades to snatch a two-goal lead and a numerical advantage within 28 minutes.<\/p>\n

Limping to a three-goal loss at Bramall Lane last weekend, Chris Davies<\/a>‘s side dropped down to 14th spot in the Championship rankings<\/a><\/strong> ahead of Boxing Day’s hosting of Derby, six points from Millwall in the lowest of the playoff spots.<\/p>\n

With their away record the fourth-worst in the division, Birmingham have placed significant stress on matches at St Andrew’s to keep their top-six hopes alive, with the hosts losing just one of 10 games in the Second City.<\/p>\n

In the conversation for the division’s Golden Boot this season, Jay Stansfield<\/a> has scored seven of his eight Championship goals at home so far, with the 23-year-old operating in both the striker and number-10 role this term.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Imago \/ IMAGO \/ Focus Images<\/p>\n

Following back-to-back losses for the first time this campaign at the hands of Middlesbrough and Leicester City in an East Midlands clash, Derby County have returned to a decent run of form as the festive period continues.<\/p>\n

The Rams are now three games without a loss after a 1-1 draw with basement dwellers Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon, when an own goal from Hayden Matthews cancelled out Callum Lang’s impressive Pompey opener.<\/p>\n

Despite winning one of their last five second-tier clashes, Derby remain in the playoff picture and sit 12th in the Championship table, four points adrift of sixth-placed Millwall ahead of consecutive away battles to conclude the calendar year.<\/p>\n

With five of their eight league wins arriving on the road so far, the Rams have been more efficient in away matches this season, smashing League One-bound Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at Hillsborough on December 15.<\/p>\n

Bagging a brilliant brace at the home of the crisis-hit Owls, Patrick Agyemang<\/a> is stepping up to the goalscoring plate for Derby whilst Ben Brereton Diaz continues to stutter, with the American on five Championship strikes for the term.<\/p>\n

Birmingham City Championship form: D W L L D L<\/p>\n

Derby County Championship form: W L L D W D<\/p>\n

Team News<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Imago<\/p>\n

After seeing red for a reckless tackle at Sheffield United last time out, Birmingham midfielder Tommy Doyle will now serve a three-game suspension.<\/p>\n

As a result, Marc Leonard could be drafted into midfield alongside Paik Seung-ho, allowing Tomoki Iwata to remain at right-back.<\/p>\n

Keshi Anderson is a doubt for Boxing Day after picking up a knock at Bramall Lane, meaning that Patrick Roberts is likely to re-enter the XI.<\/p>\n

Derby boss John Eustace failed to provide an improved update on Carlton Morris recently, with the striker expected to be sidelined until February because of a hamstring strain.<\/p>\n

Out of action for the past 11 weeks, Lewis Travis has returned to first-team training and is set to be eased back into serious action over the festive period.<\/p>\n

Birmingham City possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Allsop; Iwata, Neumann, Klarer, Robinson; Leonard, Paik, Roberts, Stansfield, Gray; Ducksch<\/p>\n

Derby County possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zetterstrom; Johnston, Langas, Clarke; Ward, Thompson, Clark, Elder; Brereton Diaz, Agyemang, Brewster<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We say: Birmingham City 2-2 Derby County<\/p>\n


\n\u00a0
\n \n<\/p>\n

With a number of defensive and midfield absentees, Birmingham may struggle to find their usual St Andrew’s\u00a0rhythm on Friday.<\/p>\n

Derby will be desperate to take advantage of any Blues frailties, with the Rams good enough to earn a point from this clash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a difficult match on the road, Birmingham City are back at fortress St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,4230,393,68644,94,707,2826,4884,22138,7126,101,4151,93,68303,10938,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-652955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-epl","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-golf","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-olympics","19":"tag-premier-league","20":"tag-rugby","21":"tag-sport","22":"tag-sports-mole","23":"tag-teams","24":"tag-tennis","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115776416807475275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}