Having battled to a 1-1 draw in the first meeting, Birmingham City and Hull City Square up in an FA Cup third round replay on Tuesday. Performances are slowly improving for Birmingham and with Hull looking off colour lately, they will be confident of claiming the upper hand.
Birmingham City will be disappointed not to have seen out the win in the first meeting. They held onto Lukas Jutkiewicz’s first half opener for long periods before conceding the equaliser three minutes from time.
While Birmingham City are still looking for their first win under manager Tony Mowbray, there have been signs of improvement in recent weeks. They showed great character to come from behind twice and earn a 2-2 draw with Swansea City in a Championship fixture last Saturday.
Having drawn their last two matches, Birmingham City will feel they are due a win and the FA Cup can be a spark for their resurgence. However, beyond the search for their first win under the new manager, one thing that remains concerning is their leaky defence that has kept just one clean sheet in the last seven matches.
While an FA Cup replay is not ideal in a packed fixture schedule, Hull City will be pleased to have avoided defeat in the first meeting. They trailed for much of the encounter before Matty Jacob netted a dramatic late equaliser.
Although it was not a defeat, the result is in keeping with Hull City’s recent form as they have picked up just one win from their last six matches across all competitions. They have lost four times in that run and were beaten 2-1 at home by Norwich City in the Championship last weekend.
Among the problems for Hull City this season is a poor record on their travels having picked up just one win from their last six away matches. Liam Rosenior’s men have lost three of the last four fixtures in that run.
How the bookies view it
The bookies are expecting a close encounter with a win for Birmingham City priced at 29/20 by Coral while a Hull City victory is valued at 7/4 by bet365. A draw is set at odds of 13/5 by Unibet.
Head to head
Hull City have an 11-6 advantage with eight draws from 25 previous matches against Birmingham City. Prior to the FA Cup stalemate, Hull had already beaten their rivals in the Championship this season, claiming a 2-0 victory at St Andrew’s back in October.
Players to watch
Birmingham City are likely to retain much of the team from the first meeting with Lukas Jutkiewicz the one to watch after netting the opener. The striker could be worth keeping an eye on to score anytime at 2/1 by bet365.
Aaron Connolly will be the one to watch for Hull City having scored eight goals this season. The striker is priced at 11/5 by bet365 to get on the score sheet on Tuesday.
Anything else catch the eye?
Birmingham City have seen over 3.5 goals in three of their last four home matches and a repeat is priced at 33/20 by 10bet. There have been second half goals for both teams in three of Hull City’s last four matches and a similar pattern is priced at 7/4 with William Hill.
Having taken the lead in the first meeting, Birmingham City could be backed to grab the opening goal on Tuesday at 10/11 with BoyleSports.
This FA Cup match between Birmingham City and Hull City will be played on Jan 16, 2024 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best Birmingham City vs Hull City prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
