Birmingham Look Likely To Struggle in Portugal Against Braga
Birmingham continue the rare balancing act of Championship football and Europa League football and they still appear to be doing pretty well on both fronts, they sit just three points below the playoffs currently with three games in hand over the teams above them whilst in the Europa League they are still in with a decent chance of qualifying despite being drawn in a tough group. Birmingham sit on the same amount of points as Braga and Club Brugge in Group H but are behind both teams due to head to head records and whilst Chris Hughton is playing down his team's chances of qualifying they look to have a good chance of pulling off a minor shock and reaching the knockout stage.
Birmingham will unfortunately be without veteran skipper Stephen Carr for this trip to Portugal, he is suffering from a knee problem and has not travelled with the squad for this match. Morgaro Gomis has been out of action for a month but Chris Hughton is hopeful that the midfielder will be able to feature in this match. Chris Wood has been in great goalscoring form this season and he could partner Marlon King up front whilst the likes of Jean Beausejour, who scored the equaliser against Bruges in Birmingham's last Europa League match, and Keith Fahey, should both line up for the Blues in midfield.
Birmingham's Europa League form has improved in recent games as has their league form but Braga will still comprehensive 3-1 winners at St Andrews earlier in the season which casts doubts about Birmingham's chances of going to Portugal and getting a result. Birmingham have lost half their away matches domestically whilst Braga are a very decent side, they have as strong a home record as Porto in Potugal having won all but one game at the Estadio Municipal de Braga this season. Braga are a pretty good price to win this game and backers of the Portuguese side should have few scares.