Cardiff vs Birmingham predictions: Cardiff to add to Rooney's problems
- Cardiff are seventh in the table
- Birmingham have slipped to 17th
- Recommended bet: Cardiff to win and under 2.5 goals
Cardiff are just one place off the play-off zone after a 1-0 home win over Millwall on Saturday and they can make it back-to-back victories by seeing off out-of-form Birmingham in midweek.
Wayne Rooney's side were dismal when going down 2-0 to local rivals Coventry on Friday and the former England star has won just one of his nine games in charge of Blues.
Team news
Cardiff duo Callum O'Dowda and Aaron Ramsey are both recovering well from injury, but this game comes too soon for them.
Boss Erol Bulut has no fresh reported injuries ahead of the home clash with the Blues.
Dion Sanderson and Cody Drameh were both ruled out of Birmingham's defeat at Coventry with knocks and will be assessed in the build-up to the trip to south Wales.
Rooney has a mounting injury list with Ethan Laird, George Hall, Kevin Long, Keshi Anderson, Tyler Roberts and Alfie Chang all still unavailable.
The stats
Cardiff have won six of their 10 home league games this season, four without conceding.
Cardiff beat Birmingham 3-1 at St Andrew's in the Carabao Cup in August.
Wayne Rooney's record in charge of Birmingham reads: Played nine, won one, drawn two and lost six.
Birmingham have a terrible recent record against Cardiff, losing seven of the last 10 meetings with the three other games ending in draws.
Birmingham's last win over the Bluebirds came in October 2017.
Prediction
This is unlikely to be a thriller with neither side playing with much confidence, but Cardiff, at home, can edge what may well be a low-scoring game.
The Bluebirds ended a run of two defeats without scoring with a hard-fought 1-0 home victory over Millwall at the weekend when defender Dimitrios Goutas struck 12 minutes before the end.
That was their sixth win at home this season and they will want to make it seven against a Birmingham side that were awful at Coventry on Friday.
Since Rooney took over in October, Birmingham have won just once – a 2-1 win at home success over lowly Sheffield Wednesday.
They have lost away to Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Southampton, Blackburn and then at the Coventry Building Society Arena most recently, with home draws to Ipswich and Rotherham mixed in.
Rooney has attempted to change the style of play and bring in a high-pressing game, but it has so far failed to make much of an impact as a disjointed Blues struggle to adapt.
The visitors have failed to score for two games in a row and even though Cardiff have not been in great goalscoring form of late either – with just one goal in their last three – they look to be in better shape overall.
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