Femi Azeez: Southampton vs Millwall – Preview, team news, predictions & H2H

Southampton host Millwall at St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday, August 29, 2026, and few games on the Championship’s third weekend carry quite as much intrigue as this one, Afrik-Foot reports.

The headline name belongs to Femi Azeez, the Millwall forward and Super Eagles winger who played the League Cup win at QPR and then thirty minutes of the season opener at Bristol City before a hamstring problem forced him off, and is now targeting his first involvement since as Millwall head to the south coast.

Southampton head into this fixture unbeaten at home in the league since January.

Millwall, by contrast, could not have asked for a better start under Alex Neil, winning both of their opening league matches.

Southampton vs Millwall Match Preview

Tonda Eckert’s Southampton sit bottom of the Championship table on minus one point, a position dictated entirely by the four-point sanction handed down after an independent panel found the club guilty of filming opposition training sessions during last season’s play-off run.

Stripped of context, the number looks alarming, but Southampton have actually taken three points from their two league fixtures, losing 2-1 away to Watford before recovering to beat Stoke City 3-1 at St. Mary’s Stadium.

That win over Stoke followed a familiar script from Eckert’s remarkable second half of last season, with Divin Mubama’s 89th-minute strike and a Ryan Manning penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time turning a stalemate into three points.

Millwall have no such asterisk next to their name and sit top of the Championship on six points from two matches.

Alex Neil’s team opened with a 2-0 win at Bristol City courtesy of a Josh Coburn brace before a red card for Norwich City defender Jose Cordoba helped the Lions to a comfortable 3-0 victory at The Den, with Tairyk Arconte scoring twice and substitute Luke Cundle adding a third.

What makes that start more striking is that Millwall have managed it with barely any minutes at all from Azeez, their top creator from last season, who has played just half an hour of Championship football so far.

Southampton’s aims are straightforward even if the route there is complicated: overturn the points penalty as quickly as possible and prove last season’s play-off exclusion was a footnote rather than the story of this rebuild.

Millwall, who lost to Hull City in last season’s play-off semi-final, want to show that near miss was a platform rather than a peak, and a third straight win would be their best start to a Championship campaign in more than a decade.

Head-to-Head: Southampton vs Millwall

These two have met 10 times in recent seasons, with Southampton winning five, Millwall winning 3, and two matches finishing level.

The reverse fixture from last season, played on January 1, 2026, at St. Mary’s Stadium, ended goalless, with Southampton dominating possession but unable to find a breakthrough against a well-organised Millwall side.

That draw is broadly representative of recent meetings between the pair, which have tended to be tight affairs.

Southampton vs Millwall: Team News

Southampton’s biggest team-news story has nothing to do with fitness and everything to do with a contract situation.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis, named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year last season, has been left out of Eckert’s last two squads amid interest from West Ham United and a rejected £18 million bid from Aston Villa, and his involvement here remains uncertain.

Caspar Jander continues to work his way back from a muscle injury and remains a doubt.

For Millwall, the Azeez situation dominates the build-up. The Super Eagles winger started the Championship opener at Bristol City, only to be withdrawn after thirty minutes when he felt his hamstring go.

That knock was enough to keep him out of the following week’s 3-0 win over Norwich City, with Alex Neil confirming afterwards that the game had “come too soon” for the forward, but the manager now has Southampton pencilled in as his target return date.

Neil has also been without Massimo Luongo, Alfie Doughty, Tristan Crama, Mathis Servais and Derek Mazou-Sacko through injury in recent weeks, leaving his defensive and midfield options stretched.

Tairyk Arconte and Kyrell Lisbie have deputised impressively in Azeez’s position.

Star Player watch: Femi Azeez vs Cyle Larin

The Managers: Tonda Eckert vs Alex Neil

Tonda Eckert took interim charge of Southampton in November 2025 after Will Still’s early-season struggles left the club just above the relegation zone, and the German, who came through Southampton’s academy coaching setup, turned the season around so completely.

That form was not enough to prevent last season ending in controversy, with Southampton excluded from the play-offs entirely and hit with this season’s four-point penalty after the club admitted breaching EFL rules on filming opponents’ training sessions, a charge that still hangs over Eckert personally.

Alex Neil took over at Millwall in the winter of 2024-25 after a difficult period out of work following his exit from Stoke City, and he has since guided three different clubs to promotion through the play-offs across his career.

Neil’s first full season at The Den ended with Millwall reaching the Championship play-offs for the first time in 24 years, only to lose to Hull City in the semi-finals, and he will be desperate to go one better this time with the strongest possible start now in place.

Tactical Preview

Southampton’s 4-2-3-1 relies heavily on the interplay between Larin, Finn Azaz and Leo Scienza, with full-backs Bree and Wellington pushing high to create overloads out wide, a pattern that produced the winning penalty against Stoke.

The trade-off is defensive fragility in behind, particularly with Harwood-Bellis unavailable.

Millwall’s approach under Neil is more direct and built around pace in transition, with Coburn’s movement and either Arconte or a returning Azeez looking to run in behind a Southampton back line that has shown it can be got at.

Set pieces could also matter, given Jake Cooper’s aerial presence at the back post and Southampton’s habit of conceding late pressure, as seen when Stoke very nearly held on for a point at St. Mary’s Stadium.

Southampton vs Millwall: Prediction and Betting Tips

Southampton vs Millwall Score prediction