West Bromwich Albion vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
The Hawthorns.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Wednesday; Kick-off 7.30pm
Wednesday 22 July 2020 20:22, UK
West Brom face QPR in the Sky Bet Championship on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports Football.
Promotion-chasing West Brom will hope to have Kieran Gibbs available for their decisive final Sky Bet Championship match of the season against QPR. The left-back will be assessed after missing the last four matches with a hamstring injury.
Manager Slaven Bilic will consider changes after last Friday's disappointing loss at Huddersfield, a match in which he took captain Jake Livermore off at half-time. The Baggies will secure automatic promotion with victory, or if they better Brentford's result against Barnsley.
QPR seem likely to be without Bright Osayi-Samuel as the midfielder reportedly nears a move to Club Brugge. Osayi-Samuel missed Saturday's 4-3 win over Millwall and looks set to join the Belgian club in the coming days.
Striker Jordan Hugill is hoping to return after four games out with a hamstring problem. Veteran defender Angel Rangel is sidelined with an Achilles injury.
West Brom have stumbled under pressure in the past two weeks and taken just two points from their last three games, during which they suffered a surprise defeat to Huddersfield - their second loss since the restart.
Meanwhile, QPR ended a run of three games without a win on Saturday, following a thrilling 4-3 win over Millwall at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
The Sky Bet Championship season reaches its conclusion on Wednesday evening - and there are matters to settle at both ends of the table...
West Brom's Slaven Bilic: "The players tried on Friday night. They didn't think we can get something out of Huddersfield with only 50, 60, 70, 80, 95 per cent. That is the easy explanation, but that is not the case. Now we have one game and one game only to do it. Forget about Friday, now it is only Wednesday night. Home. Late night game. Everything is there. We need to come up, come out, show mentality, show intensity.
"The Brentford game showed the amount of pressure that comes with the position. It doesn't come because your players are less capable of something, it comes with the position. They were not in this position for eight games and they won all of them, the games they didn't have to win. But the first one you have to win, they didn't do it.
"The Championship this season is longer than ever and we should be proud of what we have done so far, the whole of West Bromwich Albion, and now it's time to finish it off. We have got to do it."
QPR's Mark Warburton: "The focus has to be QPR. I know all the permutations and what it means for Slaven and his team, likewise Brentford, likewise Fulham. For me, we prepare for a game, it's the last game of the season and we have a responsibility to ourselves to deliver a good performance.
"We enter the game on the back of a good performance and a good. Also, in the bigger picture, the integrity of any tournament must be always be maintained. Our desire will be to field the strongest team we can, deliver the strongest display and absolutely win the game of football."
West Brom have won six of their last eight league games against QPR (L2), including each of the last three.
Queens Park Rangers' last visit to The Hawthorns saw them lose 7-1 to West Brom in August 2018, their biggest league defeat since losing 7-1 to Sheffield Wednesday in May 1987.
Following their 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield last time out, West Brom have not lost consecutive league matches since January.
QPR will be aiming to win back-to-back league games for the first time since December, following their 4-3 victory against Millwall last time out.
West Bromwich Albion's last win on the final day of a league campaign came back in the 2007-08 when they beat opponents QPR 2-0; since then, the Baggies have drawn five and lost six of their 11 games on the final day, losing each of the last three in a row.
What a let-off that was for West Brom. After slipping up at Huddersfield, they would have been thinking the worst, but then Brentford struggled under the pressure of it all the very next day at Stoke. It was an incredible weekend of action in many ways.
Pressure will play a big part again on Wednesday night, but West Brom could barely have handpicked a better fixture to finish their season. It really is the time where you would always rather be playing against a side with nothing to play for.
Fulham will be hoping both slip up so they can sneak through the door, but I think West Brom and Brentford will both win - sealing promotion for the Baggies.
David Prutton predicts: West Brom to win promotion
