Preview: Stoke City vs Fulham - prediction, team news, lineups

Championship side Stoke City welcome Premier League outfit Fulham to the Bet365 Stadium this weekend, as both sides take a break from league action and turn their attention to their FA Cup fourth-round clash.

Wins have been hard to come by for both sides in recent weeks, with the Potters suffering a late 1-0 defeat to Charlton Athletic in midweek while the Cottagers were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Manchester City.

Match preview

After a disappointing 18th-place finish last season, Stoke City made an encouraging start to the current campaign.

However, a prolonged run of poor results has seen them slip out of the playoff places and drift down the Championship table.

Their latest defeat would have been particularly disappointing, after conceding an 81st-minute winner from former player Tyreece Campbell against a relegation-threatened Charlton.

With no victories in their last six outings, Mark Robins’ side now sit 14th in the table on 43 points.

With that said, the Championship remains tightly contested, and Stoke are still within touching distance of the playoffs, with just four points separating them from sixth-placed Wrexham.

One issue for the Potters in recent weeks has been their attacking output, an area Robins will hope improves as the business end of the season draws closer and they look to mount a late surge back into the playoff places.

In their last six matches, Stoke City have found the back of the net just twice, leaving them with the seventh-worst attacking record in the division.

Stoke City kicked off their FA Cup campaign with a surprising victory over Championship league leaders Coventry; they will have to cause an even bigger shock on Sunday if they are to progress to the round of 16.

As for Premier League Fulham, a good run over the New Year period has been followed up with a disappointing February, which has seen them fall out of the Premier League's top half.

Three straight losses to Manchester United, Everton and Manchester City now mean the Cottagers sit 12th in the league and 10 points adrift of the European places.

Wednesday's loss to Manchester City saw Marco Silva's side torn apart after just 39 minutes thanks to goals from Antoine Semenyo, Nico O'Reilly and Erling Haaland.

With the Premier League not providing any positive results as of late for Fulham, they may view this FA Cup tie against lower-league opposition as an opportunity to restore confidence and build momentum.

The Cottagers advanced to this stage of the cup after an impressive 3-1 win over Middlesbrough back in January, thanks to goals from Harry Wilson, Emil Smith Rowe and Kevin.

This will be the first time these two sides have met since 2022, with Fulham winning the last three encounters.

Stoke City FA Cup form:

Stoke City form (all competitions):

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Fulham FA Cup form:

Fulham form (all competitions):

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Team News

Stoke City come into Sunday's cup tie with a long list of absentees, a list that grew after their midweek loss.

Bosun Lawal was replaced before half-time against Charlton because of an injury and will miss this one.

Divin Mubama, Robert Bozenik, Sam Gallagher, Lewis Baker, Junior Tchamadeu and Gavin Bazunu also remain sidelined through injury.

With Fulham entering the tie as clear favourites, Silva is expected to rotate his squad and rest several key players.

One of those changes is likely to come in goal, expect Bernd Leno to be replaced with Benjamin Lecomte.

Tom Cairney and Sasa Lukic remain unavailable, but Fulham otherwise have a near-fully-fit squad available to them.

Stoke City possible starting lineup:

Simkin; Talovierov, Phillips, Wilmot, Cresswell; Seko, Pearson; Manhoef, Rigo, Thomas; Cisse

Fulham possible starting lineup:

Lecomte; Castagne, Diop, Cuenca, Sessegnon; Reed, King; Bobb; Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Kusi-Asare

We say: Stoke City 1-3 Fulham

Both teams are on a poor run of games, and they will be hoping cup action can change their fortunes around. We expect Premier League Fulham to have too much quality on the day and advance to the next stage of the FA Cup with ease.

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