Preview:Huddersfield Town vs Burnley - prediction, team news, lineups

League One outfit Huddersfield Town welcome newly-promoted Premier League side Burnley to the Accu Stadium for a pre-season friendly on Saturday.

The two teams meet for the first time since February 2023 when the Clarets eased to a 4-0 home victory over the Terriers in the Championship.

Match preview

After losing each of their final six League One matches under caretaker boss Jon Worthington to fall out of playoff contention and slip to 10th place last season, Huddersfield are seeking to make vast improvements under the tutelage of new head coach Lee Grant in the 2025-26 campaign.

The 42-year-old has stepped into his first managerial role following a 22-year professional career as a goalkeeper, representing six different clubs and finishing off at Manchester United in 2022.

Grant gained three years of coaching experience at Ipswich Town before taking the Huddersfield job in May and he ‘could not be more motivated to play his part’ in helping a club with “so much potential” progress to the next level.

A total of eleven summer signings have been made by the Terriers, who began their pre-season schedule with a 3-1 defeat at non-league outfit Emley AFC at the end of June, before registering a 1-0 win over Barrow in the second week of July.

Huddersfield enter Saturday’s contest with Burnley following a week-long pre-season camp in Austria where they played out a 1-1 draw with Swiss side Young Boys before securing a slender 1-0 victory over German second-division side Greuther Furth last weekend, thanks to a second-half goal from Bojan Radulovic.

Despite narrowly missing out on the Championship title by goal difference last season, Burnley are undoubtedly in high spirits after accumulating an impressive 100 points in the second tier to secure automatic promotion to the Premier League.

Head coach Scott Parker has since overseen a busy summer transfer window as 10 permanent signings have arrived at Turf Moor, with the Clarets determined to avoid the same fate that befell them in 2023-24 when they suffered an immediate demotion from the top flight under former boss Vincent Kompany.

Burnley’s first-team squad have spent the last three weeks together in pre-season training, with the first two weeks based at their own training centre, beating Fleetwood Town 1-0 in their first behind-closed-doors friendly of the summer, before enjoying a week-long warm-weather camp in Portugal that included a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

Parker believes that his Clarets squad are “nudging along in the right direction” and the friendly fixtures lined up will provide his tight-knit group of players with “an opportunity to keep things moving forward” as the new season draws ever closer.

Burnley’s squad will be split in two for away friendlies against Huddersfield and Shrewsbury Town to be played simultaneously on Saturday, and they will reunite as one for the club’s final two fixtures against Stoke City and Lazio before preparing for their first Premier League match of the 2025-26 season away against Tottenham Hotspur on August 16.

Huddersfield Town pre-season form:

L W D W

Burnley pre-season form:

W D

Team News

Huddersfield midfielder Antony Evans has emerged as a doubt with an unspecified issue after he was forced off against Young Boys and then missed the win over Greuther Furth, but centre-back Radinio Balker has returned from an ankle injury and could feature this weekend.

Crystal Palace loanee Owen Goodman will challenge Lee Nicholls for a start between the sticks, while new recruits Alfie May, Marcus McGuane, Ryan Ledson and Lynden Gooch are among those who could also be involved in some capacity.

As for Burnley, it remains unknown as to which players will be selected in the separate squads to face Huddersfield and Shrewsbury this weekend.

Zeki Amdouni is one players who will not be involved in either fixture as the forward is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelined with a cruciate ligament tear sustained in pre-season.

Kyle Walker, Quilindschy Hartman, Loum Tchaouna, Axel Tuanzebe and Max Weiss are some of the new signings to arrive at Turf Moor this summer who could be in contention to feature in some capacity.

Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:

Nicholls; Sorensen, Whatmough, Balker, Sway; Radulovic, Kane; Harness, Wiles, Miller; May

Burnley possible starting lineup:

Weiss; Roberts, Humphreys, Esteve, Hartman; Tchaouna, Cullen, Ramsey, Anthony; Edwards; Flemming

We say: Huddersfield Town 1-2 Burnley

Both teams will back themselves to cause problems in the final third and an entertaining end-to-end affair could therefore be on the cards, but we have faith in Burnley’s quality to shine through should Parker name a relatively strong lineup in this contest.