Blackburn – Newcastle United

The Premier League representative will take the win away from Blackburn

One of the first matches of the FA Cup will take place on the pitch of the representative of the Championship. Blackburn is active in the draws of national cups of the current football year. From the English League Cup Rovers flew out in November at the stage of 1/8 finals, losing in London to Chelsea. Now on the agenda is the same stage of another cup tournament, and again in the rival strong club from the elite division. Blackburn reached the 1/8 finals, having won in two rounds. First, "blue and white" in an interesting confrontation smashed Cambridge United (5:2), then with the same goal difference beat Wrexham (4:1). Five of Rovers' nine goals in the two matches were scored by Sammy Schmodics, the top scorer in the Championship. Unlike the opponent, Newcastle played their two rounds of the tournament away, but the victories extracted no less confident. First, the Magpies made a mess of Sunderland away, scoring three unanswered goals. In the 1/16 finals Newcastle emphasised their interest in the tournament when they took away from the outskirts of London with a 2-0 victory over Fulham. Bookmakers have identified the guests as favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 1.52 on their victory. The current season in the Championship for Blackburn folds worse than many previous ones. If the usual phenomenon for the team is competition for a place in the play-off zone, now the thoughts of its players and fans are aimed at avoiding relegation to League One. Rovers' most pressing problems lie in defence, which has conceded 60 goals in 34 Championship games. And we are not talking about opponents of the level of Manchester City or Liverpool. To the match 1/8 finals of the National Cup Blackburn approaches the match in a four-match series without victories, opponents of the club during which were quite modest Birmingham, Preston, Cardiff and Norwich. Newcastle have endured the toughest period of the current season after crashing out of the Champions League. "Magpies" are unlikely to return to last year's level of performance, but since the end of January the team has started to steadily pick up points and win. Howe's men suffered their first defeat in a month last Saturday against Arsenal, but it will further help the Magpies prepare for the upcoming away game.