Preview: Nottingham Forest vs Blackburn Rovers - prediction, team news, lineups

Nottingham Forest and Blackburn Rovers meet for a pre-season friendly at Estadio de Nora in Albufeira, Portugal on Wednesday morning.

The two teams face off for the first time since December 2022 when they Tricky Trees won 4-1 at Ewood Park in the fourth round of the EFL Cup.

Match preview

Nottingham Forest are preparing for life under a fifth different manager in less than 12 months, with Oliver Glasner the latest name to take the reins following the departure of Vitor Pereira earlier this month.

Pereira won eight of his 20 games in charge of Forest and steered the club away from the Premier League relegation zone, finishing 16th, but the Tricky Trees decided to exercise a mutual break clause in the Portuguese’s contract, ending his brief 137-day spell at the City Ground.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis believes it is clear that he and new boss Glasner “share the same vision”, while the Austrian has expressed his desire to create a winning environment at the club after lifting three trophies during his time in charge of Crystal Palace.

Just over seven weeks after winning the Conference League with the Eagles, Glasner steered Forest to their first victory under his tutelage last Saturday, as the Tricky Trees kick-started their pre-season preparations with a 2-0 away win over rivals Notts County.

Forest have since arrived in Portugal for a warm-weather training camp where they will face Blackburn, Vitoria de Guimaraes and Sporting Lisbon. A trip to Italy to take on Udinese and Barcelona will follow, before returning to the City Ground to conclude pre-season with games against Bayer Leverkusen and Brest.

Blackburn Rovers are gearing up for their eighth consecutive campaign as a Championship club after narrowly avoiding relegation to finish 20th in the table last season, five points above the bottom three.

Across 46 league games, 13 wins, 13 draws and 20 defeats were posted by Rovers, who have since parted ways with Michael O’Neill and have welcomed back head coach Tony Mowbray just over four years after his first spell at the helm.

After signing 10 players last summer, Blackburn’s only incoming in the current transfer window is midfielder Moussa Baradji, whose loan deal has been made permanent. While Mowbray has confirmed talks with the hierarchy over squad improvements, he is focused on trying to “sprinkle some magic dust” on his current group of players ahead of the new season.

Blackburn have made an unbeaten start to pre-season; a goalless stalemate with Accrington Stanley was followed by a 3-0 victory and a positive performance against Barnsley in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Sunday.

Rovers have since travelled to Portugal for a training camp including friendlies against both Forest and Strasbourg. They will then return to England for their final pre-season match against Huddersfield Town on August 1, before beginning the 2026-27 campaign away to Burton Albion in the EFL Cup first round a week later.

Nottingham Forest pre-season form:

Blackburn Rovers pre-season form:

Team News

Nottingham Forest duo Chris Wood and Ibrahim Sangare will re-join the senior squad at their training camp in Portugal and could be involved on Wednesday, while Callum Hudson-Odoi is set to be ‘partly integrated’ in team training having stepped up his recovery from injury.

However, centre-back Murillo and full-back Nicolo Savona still need “a little bit of time” to recover from respective hamstring and knee injuries, and are therefore set miss the clash with Blackburn.

Arnaud Kalimuendo, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt, and Igor Jesus were both on the scoresheet against Notts County and are in contention to play in some capacity against Rovers, while star midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White could also be involved.

As for Blackburn, several first-team stars players missed the draw with Accrington due to illness, but players including Adam Forshaw, Harry Pickering, Ryan Alebiosu, Tom Atcheson, Matty Litherland and Axel Henriksson all got 45 minutes under their belt against Barnsley and could feature again against Forest.

However, Scott Wharton is dealing with a minor thigh strain and is not expected to be involved, while right-back Lewis Miller is still recovering from a long-term Achilles tendon injury.

Yuki Ohashi scored a team-high 10 goals last season and is available for selection along with the likes of Todd Cantwell, Andri Gudjohnsen and Ryoya Morishita.

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:

Sels; Abbott, Milenkovic, Morato; Aina, Yates, Dominguez, Williams; McAtee, Gibbs-White, Jesus

Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:

Pears; Litherland, Carter, Pratt, Ribeiro; Jorgensen, Forshaw, Baradji, De Neve; Ohashi, Gudjohnsen

We say: Nottingham Forest 2-1 Blackburn Rovers

Both Nottingham Forest and Blackburn will enter this contest in high spirits having made a bright start to their respective pre-season campaign. However, should Glasner select another strong starting lineup, the Premier League outfit's superior overall quality should ultimately shine through to see them edge past their Championship counterparts.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.