West Ham travel to the Welsh capital in a game that could have a big impact on Cardiff's Premier League survival chances.
The Bluebirds are currently two points adrift of Southampton and, with the Saints facing off against Tottenham at the same time on Saturday, Cardiff would hope to have a shot at moving out of the bottom three.
| Game | Cardiff vs West Ham |
| Date | Saturday, March 9 |
| Time | 3:00pm GMT / 10:00am ET |
TV Channel, Live Stream & How To Watch
In the United States (US), the game can be watched on NBC Sports Gold
| US TV channel | Online stream |
|---|---|
| N/A | NBC Sports Gold |
In the United Kingdom (UK), the game will not be broadcast due to the 3:00pm blackout law
| UK TV channel | Online stream |
|---|---|
| N/A | N/A |
Squads & Team News
| Position | Cardiff squad |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Etheridge, Smithies, Murphy |
| Defenders | Ecuele Manga, Bamba, Connolly, Cunningham, Bennett, Peltier, Richards, Morrison |
| Midfielders | Arter, Camarasa, Ralls, Paterson, Gunnarsson, Bacuna, O'Keefe, Damour, Harris, Reid |
| Forwards | Murphy, Hoilett, Mendez-Laing, Zohore, Ward, Healey, Niasse |
Cardiff will be without Sol Bamba for the rest of the season but other than that have a fully-fit squad
Potential Cardiff starting XI: Etheridge, Bennett, Ecuele Manga, Morrison, Cunningham; Arter, Camarasa, Paterson, Reid, Hoilett; Niasse
| Position | West Ham squad |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Fabianski, Adrian |
| Defenders | Zabaleta, Cresswell, Diop, Masuaku, Ogbonna, Balbeuna, Fredericks |
| Midfielders | Snodgrass, Noble, Rice, Felipe Anderson, Obiang, Powell, Holland, Lanzini, Nasri |
| Forwards | Antonio, Arnautovic, Carroll, Diangana, Perez, Chicharito |
West Ham remain without their four long term absentees - Winston Reid, Jack Wilshere, Carlos Sanchez and Andriy Yarmolenko
Potential West Ham starting XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Diop, Balbuena, Masuaku; Noble, Rice; Snodgrass, Lanzini, Anderson; Arnautovic
Betting & Match Odds
Despite being at home Cardiff are outsiders at odds of 13/5. West Ham are available to back at 23/20 and the draw is priced up at 5/2
Match Preview
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Both teams still have a lot to play for this season with West Ham chasing a Europa League spot and Cardiff desperately battling relegation.
After a couple of decent results last month Cardiff are back to looking like relegation candidates after losing their last three games with an aggregate score of 10-1.
West Ham have been buoyed by the return of Manuel Lanzini and have looked good in recent weeks, making easy work of both Fulham and Newcastle either side of a 1-0 loss at the hands of Manchester City.
Despite Southampton having a tough game against Tottenham on Saturday, Neil Warnock is adamant that he is only focusing on his own team in the latter stages of the season as they try to stay out of the bottom three.
“The league table normally doesn’t lie," said Warnock. "And we’ve managed to keep out of there a lot of the time - and we could be out of there tomorrow night. We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves and not worry about other teams. If we don’t get wins, it doesn’t matter what happens.”
Manuel Pellegrini has been stung by the Welsh side before, losing 3-2 at the Cardiff City Stadium for his first ever loss as manager of Manchester City in 2013, and the Chilean is hoping to learn from his mistakes.
The West Ham boss said: "Cardiff are playing at home and will try to add points as they want to try to avoid relegation and they are not many points behind the other teams, so we need to be fast, play with a high tempo and be aggressive.
"I remember my first defeat with Manchester City was at Cardiff when they scored from two corners. Of course, I want to change that statistic.
"Now we need to play 95 minutes and concentrate on every ball."
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