{"id":670116,"date":"2026-01-03T01:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T01:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670116\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T01:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T01:03:25","slug":"preview-birmingham-city-vs-coventry-city-prediction-team-news-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670116\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Birmingham City vs Coventry City – prediction, team news, lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their 2026 Premier League ambitions fading, Birmingham City<\/a> face another tough task on Sunday afternoon when pacesetters Coventry City<\/a> visit in the Championship.<\/p>\n

St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park will welcome back a Blues side bruised following another poor showing on the road, with the Sky Blues looking to return to winning ways.<\/p>\n

Match preview<\/p>\n

A perfect storm of injuries, suspensions and below-par performances have culminated in a woeful festive period for pre-season promotion favourites Birmingham City, who are now winless in seven Championship matches.<\/p>\n

Blues racked up their ninth away loss of the campaign on New Year’s Day, when attacking veteran Tom Ince fired a hat-trick past James Beadle, with Watford overpowering the stuttering visitors in a 3-0 victory.<\/p>\n

Collecting just three points across their last seven second-tier battles, Chris Davies<\/a>‘s men are now closer to the relegation zone than the top-six conversation in the Championship table<\/a><\/strong>, raising serious questions about the club’s summer recruitment.<\/p>\n

Marquee attacking additions Marvin Ducksch<\/a> and Kyogo Furuhashi have netted just three goals combined in the division, with the former close to confrontation with a travelling Bluenose at Vicarage Road earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

There are clearly talented players in Birmingham’s squad, but the collective is currently less than the sum of its individual parts – an issue that has been exacerbated by a wave of injuries and suspensions in December.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Imago<\/p>\n

Looking to take advantage of some Second City turmoil, Coventry City have also stumbled in their own way in recent times, earning just a single point across matches against Ipswich Town and Charlton Athletic over the past week.<\/p>\n

It appeared as if Frank Lampard<\/a>‘s men were on course for their 16th victory of the campaign on New Year’s Day when Ellis Simms fired the visitors ahead at the Valley, but a rare Joe Rankin-Costello goal forced a share of the spoils.<\/p>\n

Aiming to avoid a third straight game without a win for the first time in the division this season, the Sky Blues are sitting pretty at the summit of the Championship rankings, nine points above Ipswich in third position.<\/p>\n

Despite boasting the best away record in the league, Coventry have failed to win any of their last four outings (D3 L1), providing a reason for optimism to a Birmingham side who have lost just one of 12 league games at St Andrew’s.<\/p>\n

The recent history of this fixture points towards a routine Blues success on Sunday, with the home team winning each of the past four meetings without conceding a goal, but the Sky Blues were the last away side to be triumphant in this matchup in April 2022.<\/p>\n

Birmingham City Championship form:<\/p>\n

L D L D D L<\/p>\n

Coventry City Championship form:<\/p>\n

D W D W L D<\/p>\n

Team News<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Imago<\/p>\n

Birmingham will be delighted to welcome Tommy Doyle back into the squad on Sunday after the midfielder’s three-game suspension for a straight red card.<\/p>\n

Captain Christoph Klarer remains on the naughty step, though, meaning that Phil Neumann and Jack Robinson are likely to continue at centre-back.<\/p>\n

A surprise omission from the Watford game, Jay Stansfield has picked up a leg injury and could be sidelined once again this weekend.<\/p>\n

The standout performer for Coventry during the opening months of the term, Brandon Thomas-Asante is still recovering from a hamstring problem.<\/p>\n

A consistent starter for the Sky Blues in 2025-26, Victor Torp missed the trip to Charlton earlier in the week because of an injury.<\/p>\n

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

Beadle; Iwata, Neumann, Robinson, Cashin; Doyle, Paik, Roberts, Willumsson, Anderson; Kyogo<\/p>\n

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

Rushworth; Latibeaudiere, Thomas, Kitching; Van Ewijk, Allen, Grimes, Eccles, Kesler-Hayden; Wright, Simms<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We say: Birmingham City 1-1 Coventry City<\/p>\n

After a sobering New Year’s Day trip to Watford, solidity in the opening stages will be the order of the afternoon for Birmingham against Coventry.<\/p>\n

The Sky Blues are stuttering slightly in their title charge but should pick up a positive result in the West Midlands this weekend.<\/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":"With their 2026 Premier League ambitions fading, Birmingham City face another tough task on Sunday afternoon when pacesetters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626586,"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-670116","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\/115828477726007015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670116","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=670116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}