Fulham welcome Nottingham Forest to Craven Cottage in a rearranged Sky Bet Championship clash.
Victory would see Fulham crowned champions if Bournemouth fail to win away to Swansea elsewhere, whereas Forest can go third with a win.
Team News
Bobby Reid could start for Fulham after he was benched in Saturday’s intense 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, as Marco Silva considers rotating his squad for this clash.
Terence Kongolo (knock) remains absent.
Forest could be without Lewis Grabban after he had to be substituted in the 89th minute of Saturday’s win at Peterborough with a knock, having joined the action as a substitute himself just 15 minutes earlier.
Max Lowe (groin) and Keinan Davis (hamstring) remains absent.
Stat Attack
- Fulham have lost just one of their last seven meetings against Forest (W5, D1, L1).
- Forest have won two of their last five visits to Craven Cottage (W2, L3).
- Both teams have scored in four of their last five meetings at Craven Cottage – with exception of a 2-0 win for Fulham in February 2018.
- No Fulham player has produced more assists per 90 minutes than Harry Wilson, who had provided 16 assists in total at an average of 0.44 assists per minute.
- Four of Forest’s five goals from the penalty spot this season have been scored by Brennan Johnson and Lewis Grabban, who have both scored two penalties apiece.
Prediction
With the Championship title within sight and a nine point lead over Bournemouth, Fulham certainly can afford to lift their foot slightly but this is another ideal late-season test of their quality against a Forest team who have lost just two league games in 2022.
Marco Silva’s Cottagers though will need to up their game after they found themselves in a hard-pressure physical scrap at Bournemouth on Saturday, which is likely to sucked a lot of energy out of those players especially for Aleksandar Mitrovic who enjoyed success at 2021-22 EFL Awards on Sunday evening.
Forest meanwhile surprisingly found themselves in a similar type of match at Peterborough after lacking sharpness in the first-half, yet were able to dig out a clinical win so I expect them to come to West London looking to mount a much sharper start and cause issues for Fulham’s defence.
If Steve Cooper’s visitors do that then we certainly will have a game on the cards especially with Forest chasing automatic promotion, whereas Fulham will be eager to try and wrap up the title here to leave them with two matches to relax and prepare for next season.
A draw though would be a fair result because I can see both teams fighting hard with the first goal and subsequent reactions from both teams proving crucial.
Prediction: Fulham 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Result: Fulham 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Leave a Reply