Ipswich Town find themselves in a four-way battle for automatic promotion to the Premier League. Here's who their rivals play this weekend.

 

LEICESTER CITY v QPR 

The Foxes have seen their lead at the top of the table cut to six points following back-to-back defeats against Middlesbrough (2-1 at home) and Leeds (3-1 away).

Enzo Maresca's side won 1-0 at Bournemouth on Tuesday night to set up an FA Cup quarter-final with Chelsea.

They host 21st place QPR tomorrow afternoon (3pm), a side who have clawed their way out of the relegation zone with back-to-back wins against Bristol City and Rotherham.

Centre-back Jannick Vestergaard starts a two-game ban for picking up 10 bookings.

“The mood was very good even before the (Bournemouth) game,” Maresca told the Leicester Mercury. “When you play a game and you show yourself in the way we played last Friday (against Leeds), and for 80 minutes we dominated the game and created many chances, we have a normal goal (for Patson Daka) that was not allowed…

“The mood is not good when you play and you don’t show yourself and you see the opposition is better than you. I think it was so clear that we were very good, so the mood was good. (After Tuesday) it will be even better because we won the game. Overall, it’s a good mood.”

 

Huddersfield Town v LEEDS UNITED

Leeds United will be looking to make it 10 league wins on the bounce when they make the short trip to Huddersfield Town tomorrow lunchtime (12.30pm).

Daniel Farke, who made several changes to his side for their narrow 3-2 defeat at Chelsea in the FA Cup on Wednesday night, insists he is not taking this match lightly.

The Terriers recently appointed a new boss in Andre Breitenreiter and he oversaw a 2-1 win at Watford last weekend.

“We know each other very well,” Farke told LeedsLive, referring to the fact the pair locked horns as managers of Hoffenheim and Borussia Monchengladbach.

“It's a fantastic signing for Huddersfield because he's a really experienced and very good coach. They will use this new energy and his positivity and especially also the new confidence after the last win. I expect, really, a difficult game.”

 

Birmingham City v SOUTHAMPTON

After a club-record 25-game unbeaten run across all competitions, Southampton have lost four of their last five matches.

Defeats to Bristol City, Hull and Millwall have seen the Saints fall five points behind Leeds and Ipswich in the Championship top-two race, while they exited the FA Cup with a 3-0 loss at Liverpool on Wednesday night.

Tomorrow afternoon (3pm), the south coast club go to 18th place Birmingham City. It's the first game at St Andrew's since it was announced that Blues boss Tony Mowbray was stepping down for a spell following surgery.

Saints' key right-back Kyle Walker-Peters has joined the likes of Flynn Downes, Ryan Fraser and Ross Stewart in the treatment room this week.

"Birmingham is always a tough place to go, I know that is cliche," boss Russell Martin told the Southampton Echo.

"Tony Mowbray is such a great guy and Mark Venus has been with him for a long time. They will be trying very hard for him to make sure he comes back to a club in a good place.

"Every game is big now. We want to go into that extended international break in a good place. We will have a lot of guys that go away on internationals and we want to feel good about the run-in."