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

Hull City and Blackburn Rovers face off this Saturday at the MKM Stadium in EFL Championship. The match will be broadcast live at 12:30 on Sky Sports +.

Hull City currently have 4 points and lie in 8th position. In their last match, Sergej Jakirovic's team prevailed 3-2 against Oxford United (EFL Championship 2025/26).

Blackburn Rovers have won 0 points to date and are placed in 21st position. Last time out, Valérien Ismaël's team slipped to a 1-2 defeat against Birmingham City (EFL Championship 2025/26).

The last meeting between the two teams ended with Hull City winning 1-0.

The Fan Zone

Joe Collins (To Hull and Back Podcast): It has been a significant week off the pitch (again) for Hull City. Our three-window fee restriction has been reduced by to two windows on appeal, meaning we can spend a transfer fee on a player next summer.

The players were told in pre-season to expect a reduction, but the club believed they had a good argument to get the restrictions further reduced than by one window or lifted/suspended entirely.

For fans and the club, it is nice to have some clarity on the situation. The minutes and EFL documentation of the appeal hearing will also be an interesting read when released.

On the transfer front, it has been a quieter week for a change. There is still an expectation that Abu Kamara will depart. The appeal verdict looks to have delivered a resolution to the cases of Gustavo Puerta and Reda Laalaoui too.

Both were signed for transfer fees this summer before the restrictions were put in place. Neither transfer was ratified by the EFL, and both players have been in limbo ever since.

The expectation is that Puerta will return to Bayer Leverkusen as if nothing ever happened, and the club are seeking a loan agreement with Laalaoui's former club with a suspected gentleman's agreement that he will become a permanent Tiger for the previously agreed £400k transfer fee once we can pay fees for players again next summer.

Anyway - on the pitch things are looking promising. We've got goals in us, in stark contrast to last year. Both McBurnie and Gelhardt are off the mark in the league early, which is promising. The two goals we shipped to Oxford were sloppy, both coming from long throw-ins that we failed to clear. Sort that sloppiness out, and we can beat anyone in this division.

The best news is that Mohamed Belloumi is, at long last, ready to return from his ACL injury.

Prediction: 3-1

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Hull City

Blackburn Rovers

Last starting XIs

Hull City ( vs Oxford United 2025-08-17): Ivor Pandur, John Egan, Cody Drameh, Ryan Giles, Charlie Hughes, Matt Crooks, Kasey Palmer, John Lundstram, Joel Ndala, Joe Gelhardt, Oliver McBurnie

Blackburn Rovers ( vs Birmingham City 2025-08-16): Balázs Tóth, Sean McLoughlin, Ryan Alebiosu, Yuri Ribeiro, Dominic Hyam, Sondre Tronstad, Sidnei Tavares, Todd Cantwell, Ryan Hedges, Yuki Ohashi, Augustus Kargbo