Push for promotion intensifies as two of English football’s biggest clubs meet.

Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, face off in one of the most important fixtures in the Championship this season.

Forest currently sit 4th in the league, four points off Leeds United who are 2nd and in the automatic promotion places.

Both sides suffered disappointing defeats last weekend. The home side were beaten 2-1 away at Birmingham City, while Leeds lost 1-0 at home to Wigan Athletic.

With a small gap between the two teams, and Fulham and Brentford lurking around the top two, realistically neither side will want to drop points.

This is an important seven days for tomorrow night’s contestants. Forest will be travelling to West Brom next Saturday, with a home game with Charlton sandwiched in between Saturday evening and next weekend.

Leeds, on the other hand, follow up their trip to the City Ground with clashes with teams currently in the top six, they travel to Brentford on Tuesday and then welcome Bristol City to Elland Road on Saturday week.

Victory for Marcelo Bielsa’s men will send them back to the top of the Championship as West Brom do not play until Sunday. A win for the Reds would reduce the gap between the two sides to a single point.

The reverse fixture in Yorkshire back in August saw Forest just have one shot on target, however, that was enough for the two times European Champions to take a point back to the East Midlands.

Team news

For Nottingham Forest – Tendayi Darikwa is out with a long-term ACL injury, Samba Sow has been declared fit by Sabri Lamouchi, Nuno Da Costa and Adama Diakhaby could feature for the Reds

For Leeds United – Adam Forshaw, hip injury, Barry Douglas has not featured since January, 11. Kalvin Phillips has finished his three-game suspension. Jean-Kevin Augustin feature for Leeds’ U23 side in the week and could make his debut.

Sabri Lamouchi was named Championship manager of the month. He spoke to the media ahead of his side’s clash with Leeds.

“We just need to focus on our performance. We’re playing a good team in front of a sold-out City Ground so we need to concentrate on all of the small details because if we don’t, Leeds have the quality and the ability to punish us. They’re a dangerous team both at home and away and whether they play Bamford or Augustin up front, we know they will be tough to beat.

“I know Leeds have lost quite a few points in recent matches but I’m not sure whether it is a good time to play them or not. It is always tough to play Leeds because they are such an excellent side but we are all looking forward to playing such a big game in front of a full City Ground.”

Marcelo Bielsa talks about how confidence will be a big boost for his side.

“We will play with opponents who are close to us in the table and this has another value.

“If we add points, it is always going to be important, but it doesn’t matter who the opponents are.

“For us, playing away is not something good for us, because if you think it is better to play away from home, it means playing at home is uncomfortable for us and it is not like that.

“We believe more than ever in ourselves and we wish we could always play at Elland Road because our supporters never damage our team.

“If supporters lose faith in the team, as a team we have to recover the confidence we have lost or don’t have now.

“We need the confidence of the supporters and if we don’t deserve this confidence, we need to try and recover it.