Wolves travel to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday in what promises to be a mouth-watering FA Cup clash.
Wolves haven’t beaten their Black Country rivals on home soil in 28 years and on that day, the Wanderers secured a 4-2 victory.
When supporters descend on the Hawthorns tomorrow lunchtime, they’ll be hoping for a similarly high-scoring affair.
Arriving into this important clash, Gary O’Neil still has some international absentees to deal with in the shape of South Korea’s Hwang Hee-Chan and Mali’s Boubacar Troare, but Rayan Ait-Nouri’s Algeria suffered a humiliating exit from AFCON, and O’Neil has confirmed he could feature here.
Pablo Sarabia is expected to be available, despite suffering a hamstring issue in the 70th minute against Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday.
Joao Gomes, who was sent off in the FA Cup clash against Brentford, is serving the third and final match of his ban.
With limited options at his disposal, O’Neil isn’t expected to make many changes to the side that drew 0-0 against Brighton.
Here’s our predicted Wolves lineup against West Brom…
Wolves predicted XI vs West Brom
A big local derby calls for big characters and goalkeeper Jose Sa is certainly one of those. The Portuguese shot-stopper possesses a brilliant command of area and he’ll have to show that against a West Brom side who are dangerous from set-pieces.
The three central defenders who took to the field at the Amex on Monday should keep their place in the team here with Toti Gomes, Max Kilman and Craig Dawson.
Dawson, in particular, will be desperate to get one over his former club.
Although Ait-Nouri is possibly in contention, Nelson Semedo and Matt Doherty will likely provide the width on either side for O’Neil.
In the middle of the park, however, Mario Lemina and Tommy Doyle will continue their partnership in the absence of Gomes. Doyle was impressive against Brighton and deserves to keep his place in the side ahead of Joe Hodge.
A fiercely contest derby fixture can be decided by which side wins the battle in the engine room. There is certainly a lot of aggression and fight between the two Wolves midfielders.
One change that O’Neil could make to his side is dropping Pablo Sarabia for Jean-Ricner Bellgarde. The Spaniard is an injury doubt for the fixture and while he could be fit enough to start, the £13m signing Bellegarde could get a chance from the off.
Pedro Neto will no doubt start in the left chance. In a match that could be defined by a moment of brilliance, the Portuguese superstar is more than capable of providing it.
With Hwang still on Asia Cup duty, Matheus Cunha will continue up front and the Brazilian has the chance to become a hero in gold by scoring against the Baggies.
Wolves (3-4-3): Sa, Kilman, Toti, Dawson, Semedo, Docherty, Lemina, Doyle, Ricner-Bellegarde, Neto, Cunha