Millwall vs Norwich City: Preview, team news, h2h – Super Eagles blow for Lions

Millwall welcome Norwich City to The Den on Saturday, August 22, 2026, for a Championship fixture that already carries an early-season sting, Afrik-Foot reports.

Alex Neil’s Lions arrive on the back of a perfect start, sitting second in the table after a 2-0 win at Bristol City, while Philippe Clement’s Canaries are still searching for their first points following a 2-1 opening-day loss at West Bromwich Albion.

The visit comes with a bitter edge for Millwall supporters, since it will be the club’s first game back at The Den since a play-off semi-final exit to Hull City in May ended a promotion push that fell agonisingly short.

Norwich, for their part, arrive as a side transformed from the one that sat second-bottom of the table less than a year ago, and Neil himself has already warned that Clement’s rebuilt Canaries will be there or thereabouts in the top eight by May.

Millwall vs Norwich City preview: Form, table standings and season ambitions

Millwall’s 2025-26 campaign ended in heartbreak, but the numbers behind it tell a story of genuine progress under Neil.

The Lions finished third with 83 points, the highest total in the club’s history at second-tier level, missing automatic promotion by a single point before Hull City beat them 2-0 on aggregate in the play-off semi-final.

Their away record of 41 points was the best in the entire Championship last season, and their 18 clean sheets were also a division-high, so the platform Neil has built is built on defensive solidity as much as goals.

That base has carried into the new campaign, with Millwall beating Queens Park Rangers on penalties in the Carabao Cup before Josh Coburn’s brace sank ten-man Bristol City on the opening weekend of the league season.

Norwich’s story is almost the reverse. Under previous head coach Liam Manning they had won just two of their opening 15 league games before his sacking in November, leaving the club second-bottom of the table, but Clement’s arrival sparked one of the more dramatic turnarounds in recent Championship history.

The Canaries eventually climbed to a ninth-placed finish on 65 points, eight points shy of the play-offs, and used the summer to strengthen further, headlined by an £8m club-record-ish move for winger Andre Brooks from Sheffield United.

Left-back Darlin Yongwa arrived on a free transfer, Bruno Alves and Anthony Musaba came in on loan, and midfielder Sam Field’s loan spell was converted into a permanent deal, all pointing toward genuine play-off ambition this season.

That ambition took an early dent at The Hawthorns, where Aune Heggebo’s contentious opener, which appeared to strike the West Brom striker’s arm, set the tone for a 2-1 defeat that Mathias Kvistgaarden’s stoppage-time consolation could not repair.

Neil has already made clear he is not taking the visitors lightly, saying this week that Norwich “spent a lot of money putting together and assembling that squad” and predicting they will be “vying for the top eight, if not a bit better” this season.

For Millwall, the aim is simple and painfully specific: go one better than last season and turn a near-miss into an actual return to the top flight for the first time in 26 years.

Millwall vs Norwich City head-to-head: How the rivalry has unfolded

The two clubs have not yet met this season, with this Saturday’s game their first meeting of the new campaign. Their last two encounters both came in 2025-26, and both were settled by a single goal.

Millwall won the August meeting 2-1 away at Carrow Road, coming from behind to claim the points on the opening weekend of last season.

Norwich turned the tables in the return fixture at The Den on April 6 when Mihailo Ivanovic’s second-half opener for the Lions was cancelled out by a Pelle Mattsson long-range strike before Oscar Schwartau’s goal off the bench sealed a 2-1 win for the Canaries in front of 18,855 fans.

That result was a damaging one for Millwall at the time, denting their automatic promotion hopes and handing a boost to East Anglian rivals Ipswich Town in the race for the top two.

Looking at the bigger picture, Norwich hold a clear historical edge in this fixture, having won 12 of the last 20 league meetings between the sides, with Millwall winning five and three ending level.

Team news: Azeez injury blow and predicted XIs for Millwall and Norwich City

Millwall’s team news is dominated by the continued absence of Femi Azeez, the Super Eagles forward who was last season’s top scorer with 11 goals before going off injured early in the win at Bristol City.

Kyrell Lisbie, one of the club’s summer signings, is expected to continue in a like-for-like switch on the right in Azeez’s absence, having already impressed alongside fellow new arrival Tairyk Arconte against the Robins.

Tristan Crama and Derek Mazou-Sacko remain sidelined, and Alfie Doughty, Mihailo Ivanovic and Mathis Servais are also out of contention, leaving Neil with a genuinely stretched squad in defence and out wide.

Azeez’s situation is complicated further by reported interest from Hull City, though Neil has stressed there are no active negotiations over an imminent departure.

For Norwich, Ali Ahmed, Mirko Topic, Jovon Makama and Liam Gibbs are all unavailable, continuing the fitness concerns that have followed the club into the new season.

Clement is expected to make one change to the side beaten at West Brom, recalling Papa Diallo on the left, while Mathias Kvistgaarden, despite his goal off the bench last time out, is not expected to dislodge Mohamed Touré through the middle.

Millwall predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Jensen; Leonard, Cooper, Taylor, Sturge; de Norre, Metcalfe; Lisbie, Neghli, Arconte; Coburn.

Norwich City predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Kovacevic; Fisher, Darling, Córdoba, Chrisene; McLean, Mattsson; Brooks, Slimane, Diallo; Touré.

Star player battle: Josh Coburn against Kellen Fisher

The managers: Alex Neil against Philippe Clement

Alex Neil has been in charge at The Den since December 2024, taking over a side sitting thirteenth in the table and turning them into last season’s highest-ever second-tier points scorers.

The Scot’s Championship pedigree runs deep, having previously won promotion to the Premier League with Norwich City in 2015, before spells at Preston North End, Sunderland and Stoke City.

There is a curious thread connecting Saturday’s opposite numbers, since Neil’s first major managerial success came at Carrow Road more than a decade ago, the very club he now faces from the other technical area.

Philippe Clement’s task since replacing Liam Manning in November 2025 has been almost the mirror image of Neil’s steady project, arriving at a Norwich side that was second-bottom and in genuine danger of relegation.

The Belgian, who won titles with Club Brugge and managed at Monaco and Rangers before arriving in English football, oversaw 17 wins from his first 29 matches in charge, a turnaround that hauled Norwich from the relegation zone into a comfortable mid-table finish inside nine months.

Clement has signed a contract running until 2029, a clear signal of the club’s long-term faith in his methods, and Saturday offers an early opportunity to show his summer rebuild can translate into results away from Carrow Road.

Tactical preview: How Millwall and Norwich City could line up

Both sides are expected to line up in a 4-2-3-1 shape, setting up a genuine tactical mirror match at The Den.

Millwall’s approach under Neil leans on physicality and control, built around the aerial presence of Jake Cooper and Caleb Taylor at the back, with Ryan Leonard’s delivery from wide areas already proving a source of goals this season.

Statistical projections ahead of the game have Millwall winning more than 60 percent of aerial duels, a significant edge that could prove decisive against a Norwich back-line missing some of its natural physicality through injury.

Norwich’s shape under Clement is built around staying narrow defensively and shifting quickly to the sides, with the team dropping into a compact block rather than a deep low line, and pushing men forward through midfield runners like Kenny McLean.

The concern for Clement is Norwich’s away form, since a side that likes to control central areas and press with intensity can be exposed in transition if their full-backs, including the naturally attacking Fisher, are caught high up the pitch.

Millwall’s pace out wide through Kyrell Lisbie and Tairyk Arconte looks well suited to exploiting exactly that kind of space, particularly if Josh Coburn continues to occupy Norwich’s centre-backs through the middle.

Millwall vs Norwich City prediction and best betting tips

Final score prediction