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

Aiming to take one other important step in the direction of the playoffs, Watford welcome relegation-threatened Leicester City to Vicarage Road within the Championship on Saturday afternoon.

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

Match preview

Following three straight seasons of midtable mediocrity within the Championship since relegation from the Premier League in 2022, Watford are on a late-marketing campaign cost to gate-crash the playoff dialog.

The Hornets managed to land a major blow within the prime-six struggle on Tuesday night time at Vicarage Road, the place a primary objective in English soccer for midfielder Edoardo Bove helped the hosts to a 3-1 success over Wrexham.

Losing simply one in every of their final 4 second-tier fixtures, Edward Still‘s troops have moved as much as ninth spot within the Championship standings forward of this Saturday’s crunch clash in Hertfordshire, 5 factors behind sixth-positioned Southampton.

Only league leaders Coventry City (14), Ipswich Town (12) and Millwall (11) have loved extra residence wins than Watford within the second tier this season, nevertheless the Hornets have received simply two of their final six matches at Vicarage Road.

Still’s facet want to seek out some consistency in the event that they want to make the playoff bracket in May, with Saturday afternoon’s hosts final successful consecutive Championship matches on the finish of the festive interval.

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On an analogous word, Leicester City had been unable to file again-to-again Championship triumphs for the primary time since November final weekend, when out-of-kind QPR picked up a 3-1 triumph on the King Power Stadium.

After dropping every of their earlier 4 matches, the R’s seemed set to undergo one other loss when main marksman Jordan James opened the scoring for the Foxes within the first half, nevertheless the guests rallied again to show that their season has not petered out simply but.

Managing simply the one win throughout six second-tier contests for the reason that arrival of Gary Rowett as interim boss till the tip of the marketing campaign, Leicester have slumped right down to twenty third spot within the Championship desk, two factors from security with eight video games remaining.

Whilst the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Oxford United have picked up a lot-wanted wins within the relegation dogfight just lately, the Foxes have been pressured to accept three consecutive away attracts at Stoke City, Middlesbrough and Ipswich.

The Midlands outfit want to begin producing common victories to provide themselves an opportunity of avoiding an unthinkable demotion to League One, nevertheless Leicester have didn’t win an away match for the reason that FA Cup journey to Cheltenham Town on January 10.

Watford Championship kind:

W L W D L W

Leicester City Championship kind:

D D L D W L

Team News

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Missing Watford’s final 5 Championship matches, Othmane Maamma is a serious absentee for Saturday’s guests.

An EFL Trophy winner with Peterborough United final season, Hector Kyprianou is at present unavailable as a consequence of a hand damage.

Fighting to make his first look of 2026 following a hamstring damage, Leicester midfielder Aaron Ramsey is more likely to be saved out of this weekend’s squad by sickness.

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

Experienced goalkeeper Asmir Begovic is concentrating on first-team motion subsequent month, while Harry Souttar continues to construct up health after 15 months on the sidelines.

Watford potential beginning lineup:

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

Leicester City potential beginning lineup:

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

We say: Watford 2-1 Leicester City

After an important win over Wrexham earlier within the week, Watford can be assured of additional boosting their playoff hopes this weekend.

Leicester are three matches unbeaten on the street for the reason that appointment of Rowett, nevertheless we really feel {that a} Foxes defeat is on the playing cards at Vicarage Road.

For knowledge evaluation of the more than likely outcomes, scorelines and extra for this match please click here.