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

Stoke City and Birmingham City face off this Saturday at the Bet365 Stadium in EFL Championship.

The Potters have won nine points to date and sit third, Mark Robins's team slipped to a 0-1 defeat against West Bromwich (EFL Championship 2025/26).

League One champions last season, Birmingham City have made a solid start to life in the second tier and the Blues have picked up seven points; Chris Davies's team currently in 10th position. In their last encounter, Birmingham were beaten 2-0 by Leicester.

The last meeting between these two teams saw Birmingham prevail 2-1 back in the Blues' relegation season of 2023/24.

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Daniel Oliveira (Playmaker Stats editor): Stoke City have got off to a strong start this season and could prove to be the Championship’s surprise package.

They’ve won three of their opening four games and sit comfortably in third place. At home, they’ve recorded one win and one defeat, and they will be keen to put their recent loss to the Baggies behind them in this fixture - Potters manager Robins furious after that game that his side weren't awarded a penalty.

There’s a renewed sense of energy around the club. Stoke aren’t just picking up points - they’re playing with the kind of confidence their fans have been craving.

This one has all the ingredients of a tight and competitive Championship game, but I’m backing Stoke to take the win.

Prediction: 2-1

George Revell (Blues Focus): Six of Chris Davies’ troops jetted off to represent their countries over the international break - and some had a lot of travelling to do.

For instance, Paik Seung-ho made the journey to New York and played 90 minutes for South Korea in a 2-0 win over the USA late last Saturday night before watching a 2-2 draw with Mexico - also in the States - from the bench in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Davies will have meetings with his returning internationals to gather information regarding their availability before Blues’ trip across the midlands on Saturday.

Demarai Gray has been confirmed fit by Davies but he was more coy on Jay Stansfield’s readiness. Given the importance of the upcoming matches, I think Blues’ top goalscorer might be left to heal a little longer.

I expect a very close encounter on Saturday. Blues - as do Stoke - want to bounce back from the defeat they suffered two weeks ago, but neither side want to lose.

The game may be won by a moment of magic, and for my sake I’m going to say Blues will come up with it.

Prediction: 0-1

Predicted lineups

Stoke City: Viktor Johansson, Junior Tchamadeu, Ben Wilmot, Bosun Lawal, Aaron Cresswell, Tatsuki Seko, Lewis Baker, Million Manhoef, Bae Jun-ho, Sorba Thomas, Divin Mubama

Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop, Ethan Laird, Phil Neumann, Christoph Klarer, Alex Cochrane, Tommy Doyle, Tomoki Iwata, Patrick Roberts, Willum Willumsson, Demarai Gray, Kyogo Furuhashi

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Stoke City

Birmingham City

Last starting XIs

Stoke City ( vs West Bromwich 2025-08-30): Viktor Johansson, Ben Wilmot, Bosun Lawal, Junior Tchamadeu, Aaron Cresswell, Bae Jun-ho, Tatsuki Seko, Lewis Baker, Divin Mubama, Million Manhoef, Sorba Thomas

Birmingham City ( vs Leicester City 2025-08-29): Ryan Allsop, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Christoph Klarer, Phil Neumann, Ethan Laird, Willum Willumsson, Tomoki Iwata, Paik Seung-ho, Demarai Gray, Lewis Koumas, Kyogo Furuhashi

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