QPR vs Portsmouth predictions: Strugglers look difficult to split
- Portsmouth are still looking for their first Championship win of the season
- QPR hope to bounce back from three straight league defeats
- Recommended bet: Draw
Both QPR and Portsmouth have found the going tough in the Championship this season and the pair head to Loftus Road on Saturday desperate to kick-start their campaign with a victory.
Pompey have yet to claim a success since winning League One last season, while QPR have posted just a solitary triumph, so a nervy afternoon in west London is expected.
Team news
Jake Clarke-Salter is set to sit out again for the hosts while Jack Colback and Liam Morrison are nearing a return to Marti Cifuentes’ squad.
Meanwhile, Pompey have been boosted by the news that Kusini Yengi and Callum Lang have both been training during the international break and they should feature in the visitors’ squad.
The stats
Both teams have scored in seven of QPR’s nine Championship games this season.
QPR have scored exactly one goal in five of their last six home matches.
The Hoops have kept just two clean sheets in their last 13 outings on their own patch.
Portsmouth have won one of their last 12 matches.
Pompey have scored in their last eight league away games.
Prediction
Portsmouth are still waiting for their first victory back in the Championship after nine games and while there would have been hopes that they could have followed Ipswich in claiming successive promotions, a battle at the other end of the second tier now looks likely.
A visit to QPR, who have just a win at Luton to show for their efforts, looks an ideal opportunity for John Mousinho’s League One champions to put that right, but both of these teams have had problems finding that extra quality and it looks likely that they will cancel each other out.
Pompey have had five draws since going up and stalemates at Leeds and Middlesbrough should be considered decent results, while they also lost to an injury-time winner at high-flying Burnley.
However, they suffered a 6-1 humbling at Stoke the last time they were on their travels and that could take some getting over, even though there has been extra-time to dwell during the international break.
Rangers have posted 1-1 draws at home to two other teams who look likely to finish in the bottom half this season, Millwall and Plymouth, and it was a similar scoreline when they got through in the League Cup on penalties against Luton.
These two, along with Bristol City, are the only Championship teams to have drawn more than three league games this season and as both have plenty of questions to answer, they look difficult to split in Saturday’s clash.
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