Preview: Watford vs Leicester City - prediction, team news, lineups

Aiming to take another significant step towards the playoffs, Watford welcome relegation-threatened Leicester City to Vicarage Road in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.

The Hornets managed a seismic success over Wrexham earlier in the week, whilst the Foxes have been dwelling on a sobering home defeat to Queens Park Rangers last weekend.

Match preview

Following three straight seasons of midtable mediocrity in the Championship since relegation from the Premier League in 2022, Watford are on a late-campaign charge to gatecrash the playoff conversation.

The Hornets managed to land a significant blow in the top-six fight on Tuesday night at Vicarage Road, where a first goal in English football for midfielder Edoardo Bove helped the hosts to a 3-1 success over Wrexham.

Losing just one of their last four second-tier fixtures, Edward Still's troops have moved up to ninth spot in the Championship standings ahead of this Saturday's crunch clash in Hertfordshire, five points behind sixth-placed Southampton.

Only league leaders Coventry City (14), Ipswich Town (12) and Millwall (11) have enjoyed more home wins than Watford in the second tier this season, however the Hornets have won just two of their last six matches at Vicarage Road.

Still's side need to find some consistency if they wish to make the playoff bracket in May, with Saturday afternoon's hosts last winning consecutive Championship matches at the end of the festive period.

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On a similar note, Leicester City were unable to record back-to-back Championship triumphs for the first time since November last weekend, when out-of-form QPR picked up a 3-1 triumph at the King Power Stadium.

After losing each of their previous four matches, the R's looked set to suffer another loss when leading marksman Jordan James opened the scoring for the Foxes in the first half, however the visitors rallied back to prove that their season has not petered out just yet.

Managing just the single win across six second-tier contests since the arrival of Gary Rowett as interim boss until the end of the campaign, Leicester have slumped down to 23rd spot in the Championship table, two points from safety with eight games remaining.

Whilst the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Oxford United have picked up much-needed wins in the relegation dogfight recently, the Foxes have been forced to settle for three consecutive away draws at Stoke City, Middlesbrough and Ipswich.

The Midlands outfit need to start producing regular victories to give themselves a chance of avoiding an unthinkable demotion to League One, however Leicester have failed to win an away match since the FA Cup trip to Cheltenham Town on January 10.

Watford Championship form:

Leicester City Championship form:

Team News

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Missing Watford's last five Championship matches, Othmane Maamma is a major absentee for Saturday's visitors.

An EFL Trophy winner with Peterborough United last season, Hector Kyprianou is currently unavailable due to a hand injury.

Fighting to make his first appearance of 2026 following a hamstring injury, Leicester midfielder Aaron Ramsey is likely to be kept out of this weekend's squad by illness.

Set to return after the international break, centre-back Jannik Vestergaard has not featured since January for the Foxes.

Experienced goalkeeper Asmir Begovic is targeting first-team action next month, whilst Harry Souttar continues to build up fitness after 15 months on the sidelines.

Watford possible starting lineup:

Selvik; Abankwah, Pollock, Goglichidze, Bola; Irankunda, Louza, Ekwah, Chakvetadze; Kayembe, Kjerrumgaard

Leicester City possible starting lineup:

Stolarczyk; Pereira, Okoli, Nelson, Thomas; Winks, James, Fatawu, Mukasa, Mavididi; Daka

We say: Watford 2-1 Leicester City

After a vital win over Wrexham earlier in the week, Wrexham will be confident of further boosting their playoff hopes this weekend.

Leicester are three matches unbeaten on the road since the appointment of Rowett, however we feel that a Foxes defeat is on the cards at Vicarage Road.

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