Swansea City welcome Derby County to the Liberty Stadium in Saturday’s big Sky Bet Championship clash.
Victory could see Swansea climb to fourth as they look to try and seize the advantage in the scrap to sort out the play-off semi-final pairings, whereas Derby will secure safety with a win should Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday lose elsewhere.
Team News
Andre Ayew is unlikely to feature for Swansea as the result of a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury, despite featuring as a substitute in last Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Reading.
Steven Brenda (ankle) and Tivonge Rushesha (knee) remain ruled out.
Derby could again be without Andre Wisdom as the defender continues to struggle with a groin injury, which forced him to miss the Rams’ defeat to Birmingham last weekend.
Beni Baningime (hamstring) is a doubt and could join Teden Mengi, Lee Gregory (both hamstring), Jack Stretton (calf), Krystian Bielik (knee), Jordan Ibe (fitness) and Curtis Davies (Achilles) on the sidelines.
Stat Attack
- Swansea are winless in their last seven meetings against Derby (D3, L4).
- Derby have lost just one of their last five trips to Swansea (W1, D3, L1), with two of those three draws finishing 1-1 in September 2008 and May 2019 respectively.
- No Championship goalkeeper has kept more clean sheets this season than Swansea’s Freddie Woodman, who has achieved 20 shutouts in 43 appearances.
- Derby haven’t lost six consecutive matches since April-May 2008, when they were relegated from the Premier League at end of 2007-08 season.
- Darren Bond is refereeing a Swansea home game for the second time this season, having overseen their 2-1 win over Watford in January.
Prediction
With a spot in the play-offs guaranteed, it will be interesting to see how Swansea approach this game because they are still battling for a home advantage in the second leg of their play-off semi-final.
Derby meanwhile enter this match in dire form and have blown early leads in two of their last three games, which is just one of many concerns for a team who have won just one of their last nine away trips.
This game however has probably come at a good time for the Rams given their form in this fixture, especially given that victory could seal their survival but I just can’t them getting a result here if Swansea turn up and deliver despite recent defensive issues.
Prediction: Swansea 1-1 Derby
Result: Swansea 2-1 Derby
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