Stoke City vs West Bromwich Albion Prediction: Stoke were badly beaten in last game

Stoke City will be hosting West Bromwich Albion in an English Championship encounter in the third round at Bet365 Stadium. Stoke were beaten in their most recent match. Who will prevail after 90 minutes?

Having finished 17th in the Championship for the 2023-24 season, only six points above the relegation zone, Stoke City is hoping to move on to an ambitious promotion to the Premier League—the level they have been missing since 2018.

The Potters did, though, get their pursuit for top-flight football back under way on a good footing by securing a hard-fought 1-0 win away at Coventry City on the opening weekend of the new season. Ex-Chelsea midfielder Lewis Baker scored the game-winning goal for Stoke deep in the second half of the match.

They showed a settled momentum in the EFL Cup as they won 2-0 past League Two opponents Carlisle United. That came from some of the hopefuls with goals in it, with Freddie Anderson and Emre Tezgel both on the score sheet shortly after the break to all but seal progress into the next round, where they will meet Middlesbrough.

Yet, the early optimism on Tyneside was somewhat quashed last weekend as Schumacher's side was taken apart in a 3-0 reverse against Watford at Vicarage Road. Ryan Andrews and a double from Edo Kayembe consigned Schumacher's troops to a torrid Saturday afternoon as they left Hertfordshire with much to mull over in their quest to return to winning ways.

Johansson; Tchamadeu, Wilmot, Gibson, Bocat; Laurent, Thompson, Manhoef, Burger, Gooch; Mmaee

After losing several key players in the summer following May's playoff semi-final defeat, things could have been worse for Albion, who have managed to get off to a fair start in the 2024-25 Championship with four points from their opening two matches against Queens Park Rangers and Leeds United.

The Baggies made a real statement on the opening weekend as they cruised to a 4-0 away win at Loftus Road. Former Fulham and Sunderland striker Josh Maja stole the show with a sensational hat-trick to make it a memorable start for the Black Country outfit.

A much-changed West Brom team, featuring a number of Under-21s, were knocked out of the EFL Cup in the very first round with a 2-1 defeat by League Two's Fleetwood Town, for whom the result would see them host Rotherham United a round later.

Last weekend, Carlos Corberan's freescoring men rubberstamped their unbeaten start to the season with another victory after Leiecester City, playing out a goalless draw at The Hawthorns against play-off hopefuls West Bromwich Albion, where goalkeepers Alex Palmer and Illan Meslier kept clean sheets for both sides.

Palmer; Furlong, Ajayi, Bartley, Heggem; Molumby, Mowatt, Fellows, Swift, Grant; Maja

In stark contrast to their travails last season, West Brom were brilliant on their travels at Queens Park Rangers a fortnight ago and will be confident of doing likewise in Staffordshire. Stoke City, on the other hand, may have been brought to a sudden juddering halt when crashing to a heavy 4-1 defeat last weekend at in-form Watford and will hope it does not signal a shift back to their previous form. So we back the Potters for the loss in that fixture as well. Play double chance in favor of the away team in order to reduce the risk.