Preview:Birmingham City vs Ipswich Town - prediction, team news, lineups

The 2025-26 Championship season will get underway when Birmingham City lock horns with Ipswich Town in Friday's clash at St. Andrew's.

Birmingham cruised to the League One title last term to secure promotion to the second tier, while the Tractor Boys have returned to the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League.

Match preview

After dropping down from the Championship in 2023-24, Birmingham made light work of the third tier in Chris Davies's first season in charge, collecting 111 points from 46 matches to clinch the title and break the EFL record points tally for a single season.

Most teams that win promotion from the third tier would surely set survival as their primary objective, but Birmingham are likely to be settling their goals a little higher with the backing of chairman Tom Wagner and minority owner Tom Brady.

They have paid transfer fees to recruit Kyogo Furuhashi, Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Alfons Sampsted, while James Beadle, Eiran Cashin and Tommy Doyle have all arrived on loan deals.

Birmingham have also delved into the free agent market to sign Bright Osayi-Samuel, Phil Neumann, Kanya Fujimoto and Demarai Gray, with the latter returning to his boyhood club after spending time at Leicester City, Bayer Leverkusen, Everton and Al Ettifaq.

Blues have warmed up for the new season with four wins and three defeats in seven matches, including a narrow 1-0 win in their final outing of pre-season outing against Premier League Nottingham Forest.

As they prepare for a tough opener against Ipswich, Birmingham will want to continue to make St. Andrew's a fortress after finishing last season's promotion-winning campaign with an unbeaten home record in League One (W19, D4).

After winning back-to-back promotions, Ipswich were brought crashing back down to earth in their first Premier League campaign since 2001-02.

Kieran McKenna's side finished in 19th place and 16 points adrift of safety after losing 24 of their 38 top-flight matches (W4, D10).

Having dropped down to the second tier, Ipswich will be determined to mount a serious push to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Ipswich have seen several key players depart this summer, including captain Sam Morsy and striker Liam Delap, but they have bolstered their squad with Azor Matusiwa, Cedric Kipre, Ashley Young and David Button.

The Tractor Boys should head into Friday's fixture in a positive mood after recording four consecutive victories against BW Linz, Aberdeen, Charlton Athletic and Auxerre in their pre-season schedule.

Ipswich will be targeting another win in their first game of the season, but that may be easier said than done, having failed to win any of their previous seven away matches against Birmingham since they recorded a 1-0 victory in November 2012.

Birmingham City pre-season form:

L L W W L W

Ipswich Town pre-season form:

W W W W

Team News

Birmingham are unable to call upon the injured Scott Wright, while Fujimoto is continuing to work his back to full fitness following a knee problem.

Out of the summer additions, Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Doyle and Gray appear to be the leading candidates to feature in the first starting lineup of the season.

After netting 19 goals in League One last season, Jay Stansfield could be given the nod over Furuhashi in the battle for Birmingham's number nine spot.

As for the visitors, they are unable to call upon left-back Conor Townsend, who is set to for an extended period on the sidelines after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the recent friendly against Auxerre.

Harry Clarke and Wes Burns will also miss the opening game of the season, while Leif Davis and Jaden Philogene are battling to prove their fitness ahead of Friday's contest.

The Tractor Boys appear to have beaten Birmingham in the race to sign Ajax's Chuba Akpom, but it is unclear whether the deal will be completed in time for the forward to play a role at St. Andrew's.

Birmingham City possible starting lineup:

Allsop; Osayi-Samuel, Klarer, Neumann, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik, Doyle; Gray, Anderson, Stansfield

Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:

Palmer; Johnson, O'Shea, Greaves, Young; Matusiwa, Taylor; Philogene, Szmodics, Clarke; Hirst

We say: Birmingham City 1-1 Ipswich Town

Birmingham went the entire of last season without losing a league game at St. Andrew's, and while a meeting with recently-relegated Ipswich represents a significant step up, we think that the hosts and their flurry of new additions will do enough to take a point from Friday's fixture.

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