West Bromwich Albion can take another giant stride towards promotion back to the Premier League when they travel to relegation candidates Huddersfield Town on Friday evening.
The Baggies currently lie second in the table, boast a one-point lead over third-placed Brentford, while Huddersfield sit 20th heading into the penultimate gameweek of the season.
Match preview
© Reuters
Huddersfield's woes in front of goal continued in midweek as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Sheffield Wednesday - the fourth game in a row that the Terriers failed to find the back of the net.
The result was the third time in four matches that Danny Cowley's men played out a goalless stalemate in the second tier, with a 2-0 loss to struggling Luton Town sandwiched in between tedious draws to Reading and Wednesday.
However, that point at Hillsborough could yet prove vital in Huddersfield's bid to avoid relegation to League One, as Cowley's men now have a three-point margin separating them from the drop zone.
As things stand, Huddersfield occupy 20th spot in the table after 44 matches, although Charlton Athletic were minutes away from overtaking the Terriers before Birmingham City's Lukas Jutkiewicz netted an injury-time equaliser in their clash with the Addicks on Wednesday.
The Terriers will lock horns with Millwall in their final game of the season - a side that have enjoyed a strong run of form as of late - so Huddersfield may have to rely on the teams below them suffering defeats as Cowley's men prepare for two testing fixtures to end the season with.
© Reuters
Likewise, West Brom missed the chance to temporarily leapfrog table-toppers Leeds United as the Baggies played out a goalless stalemate with fellow promotion hopefuls Fulham on Tuesday.
Furthermore, following Brentford's 1-0 victory over Preston North End on Wednesday, the Bees are now breathing down the neck of Slaven Bilic's men and sit just one point behind West Brom at this crucial stage of the campaign.
The Baggies' destiny is still very much in their own hands, however, and West Brom simply need to win their last two games against Huddersfield and Queens Park Rangers to guarantee automatic promotion to the top flight.
Bilic's side have only lost three times away from home all season, and while the Baggies have marginally dented their automatic promotion hopes with back-to-back draws recently, West Brom ought to feel confident of accruing maximum points from their final two fixtures.
A six-goal thriller in the reverse fixture ultimately saw West Brom take the spoils in a 4-2 victory at the Hawthorns in September.
Huddersfield Championship form: LWDDLD
West Brom Championship form: LWWWDD
Team News
© Reuters
Huddersfield's solitary concern is the knee injury keeping Tommy Elphick on the treatment table, but other than that Cowley has a clean bill of health for the visit of the promotion hopefuls.
Frazier Campbell will be hopeful of earning a recall up top for the Terriers, while Chris Willock is also in contention to feature on the right flank.
As for West Brom, Bilic will hope to have Kieran Gibbs available for the final two games of the season, but the left-back nevertheless remains a doubt with a hamstring issue.
Teenage defender Nathan Ferguson, who last featured for West Brom in January, turned down the Baggies' offer of a new deal and is rumoured to be nearing a move to Crystal Palace.
Matt Phillips came off the bench at half time against Fulham and is in line for a start on Friday, meaning Grady Diangana could switch to the left-hand side in place of Kamil Grosicki.
Huddersfield possible starting lineup:
Lossl; Chalobah, Schindler, Stearman, Toffolo; Hogg, O'Brien; Willock, Pritchard, Grant; Campbell
West Brom possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; O'Shea, Bartley, Ajayi, Townsend; Livermore, Sawyers; Phillips, Pereira, Diangana; Austin
We say: Huddersfield 0-2 West Brom
Both sides are in desperate need of three points for completely different reasons here. West Brom will be aware that they can ill-afford any more slip ups lest they risk dropping out of the top two, while relegation candidates Huddersfield seem to have lost their shooting boots at the worst moment possible, so we are going for a comfortable away victory on Friday.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a West Bromwich Albion win with a probability of 46.79%. A draw had a probability of 26.9% and a win for Huddersfield Town had a probability of 26.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a West Bromwich Albion win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.85%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (9.07%) and 1-2 (8.93%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.66%), while for a Huddersfield Town win it was 1-0 (8.98%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 6.2% likelihood.
