Portsmouth and Swansea City meet at Fratton Park on Tuesday night, with both sides looking to build on their encouraging starts to the 2026-27 Championship campaign.

Pompey were held to a 1-1 draw by recently relegated Burnley at the weekend, while the Swans returned to winning ways in emphatic fashion by thrashing Blackburn Rovers 4-0 at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Match preview

Since securing promotion to the Championship in May 2024 and successfully avoiding a return to League One across the last two seasons, John Mousinho has continued to oversee steady progress at Portsmouth, with their recent results suggesting the manager has once again taken his side up another level.

Pompey were held to a goalless draw by Burnley, who were competing in the Premier League just a few months ago, although the result offered a mixed assessment of their performance, highlighting both their defensive strengths and their continued struggles in attack.

After 13 Championship matches, Portsmouth sit in the top half of the table, having recorded five wins, four draws and four defeats to collect 19 points and establish a healthy cushion over the relegation zone.

However, Saturday's stalemate against Burnley, who have now gone 22 matches without a win at Turf Moor, underlined their ability to remain organised at the back while also exposing their wastefulness in the final third, where a lack of cutting edge continues to undermine their efforts.

Their tally of 16 goals is the lowest of any side in the top half and among the poorest returns in the division, making their attacking output an area Mousinho will be eager to improve as he approaches his 200th match in charge of Pompey.

As for Swansea City, they make the trip to Fratton Park enjoying their best start to a Championship season since being relegated from the Premier League more than eight years ago, despite heading into the weekend on the back of consecutive defeats.

The Swans travelled to Loftus Road a week before Halloween and were thrashed 5-0 by Queens Park Rangers, following an earlier defeat to former Premier League side West Ham United, with their place at the top of the table subsequently taken by Middlesbrough.

Despite entering the weekend inside the top two, Vitor Matos and his Swansea side were determined to end their brief losing run at the earliest opportunity, and they did so in emphatic fashion by putting four goals past Blackburn Rovers in South Wales.

First-half strikes from Stephen Eustaquio, Joseph Opoku and Filip Lissah put the Swans firmly in control before Ross Stewart added a fourth shortly before the hour mark, completing a superb response to the heaviest defeat of Matos's reign and matching their biggest victory under the Portuguese manager.

That eighth win of the campaign, alongside two draws and three defeats, leaves Swansea second in the standings, just two points behind the league leaders as they look to maintain their promotion push.

Portsmouth Championship form:

Swansea City Championship form:

Team News

Looking to build on their encouraging start to the campaign, Portsmouth could name an unchanged side for their second away fixture in four days after coming through the weekend's draw without any fresh injury concerns.

However, Mousinho will remain without Connor Ogilvie, Keshi Anderson, John Swift, Luke Brooke-Smith and Colby Bishop, who are all unavailable.

As for Swansea, Matos would ideally like to retain the starting XI that performed so impressively against Blackburn, but he may be forced into at least one change.

Eustaquio, who opened the scoring in Saturday's 4-0 victory, is a doubt after being forced off 17 minutes from time with a groin injury.

Adam Idah replaced the Canadian midfielder during the weekend win, but Matos may favour a more like-for-like alternative when selecting his side for Tuesday's trip to Hampshire.

Cameron Burgess, Ronald and Moussa Kounfolo Yeo remain unavailable for the Welsh visitors.

Portsmouth possible starting lineup:

Schmid; Swanson, Poole, Dia, Meghoma; Pack, Mohamed; Kamara, Segecic, Kavuma-McQueen; Marezi

Swansea City possible starting lineup:

Vigouroux; Lissah, Cabango, Welsh, Tymon; Widell, Fulton, Just; Opoku, Stewart, Ji-Sung

We say: Portsmouth 1-2 Swansea City

Although Portsmouth are unbeaten in their last five matches heading into a meeting with second-placed Swansea, we believe the hosts will fall just short of extending that run.

We expect a closely contested encounter at Fratton Park, but the Swans should have enough attacking quality to follow up their emphatic weekend victory with another three points in Hampshire.

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