PREVIEW | Blackburn Rovers vs Birmingham City - team news, lineups, predictions | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers welcome Birmingham City to Ewood Park this Saturday for round two of the EFL Championship.

Valérien Ismaël ended last season on a positive note in charge of Rovers, but the new campaign hasn’t begun as planned. His side slipped to a 1-0 defeat against former club West Bromwich Albion on the opening weekend, before suffering a 2-1 upset at the hands of League One Bradford City in the EFL Cup.

Birmingham will make the trip north backed by a huge travelling contingent of around 7,000 fans, all hoping this season can be the start of a push back to the Premier League. The Blues opened with a 1-1 draw at home to Ipswich Town, a result shaped by a late and controversial penalty, before knocking out Sheffield United 2-1 in midweek cup action.

The most recent meeting between the two clubs saw Birmingham edge a tight contest 1-0.

The Fan Zone

Liam Scott : I could spend all day ranting here. To keep it simple, Birmingham probably wont get an easier three points all season.

Key players wanting to leave and probably wont play, new signings haven't settled in yet and it probably wont be a happy camp after the Travis news.

Whereas Birmingham have started the season well, have a lot of quality and a galvanised fanbase. We need to hope someone steps up for Rovers to give us any chance to get something out of this game. Maybe a bit of Todd Cantwell magic could do it for us.

Prediction: 0-2

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Blackburn Rovers

Birmingham City

Last starting XIs

Blackburn Rovers ( vs Bradford City 2025-08-12): Nicholas Michalski, Kristi Montgomery, Lewis Miller, Scott Wharton, Harry Pickering, Sondre Tronstad, Sidnei Tavares, Axel Henriksson, Igor Tyjon, Dion De Neve, Makhtar Gueye

Birmingham City ( vs Sheffield United 2025-08-13): James Beadle, Ethan Laird, Alex Cochrane, Christoph Klarer, Eiran Cashin, Willum Willumsson, Tommy Doyle, Marc Leonard, Tomoki Iwata, Kyogo Furuhashi, Demarai Gray