Reading and West Ham will lock horns this Wednesday in a pre-season friendly as they continue their preparations for their respective campaigns at the Madejski Stadium with kickoff at 21:00.
West Ham finished in the sixth position with 65 points in the last Premier League season qualifying for Europa League for the first time in five years. They will face Reading as they continue their preparations for the nest season as they aim to doing better than last season which is evident in their pre-season friendlies.
The Hammers are unbeaten in their last three pre-season matches, they opened their pre-season with a 2-2 draw against Dundee and proceeded to split their squad into two as they took on both Northampton Town and Leyton Orient on Tuesday at the same time. They won 2-1 against Northampton and drew 0-0 with Leyton Orient.
The Hammers will take on Celtic, Brentford and Atalanta in the remaining pre-season friendlies before opening their 2021-22 Premier League campaign against Newcastle United at away on August 15.
Reading on the other hand finished in the seventh position in the Championship last season and are unbeaten in seven matches at the Select Car Leasing Stadium. Reading will be looking to improve next season and the preparations are currently underway as they are set to play West Ham.
The Royals head into the friendly off the back of 1-0 win over League One side Lincoln City thanks to a 19-year-old goal Tyrell Ashcroft. Today’s clash will the Royals second friendly match in the pre-season following the cancellation of their clash with Aberdeen on Friday due to three positive Covid-19 tests.
Reading will take on Charlton Athletic and Crystal Place in their remaining pre-season friendlies before kicking off their Championship 2021-22 campaign against Stoke City on August 7.
Reading vs West Ham head to head
Both sides have met in 12 occasions since 2003 with Reading having a better record of seven victories while West Ham have four victories and only match ended in a draw. Take a look;
- West Ham 4-2 Reading May 19, 2013
- Reading 1-0 West Ham Dec 29, 2012
- West Ham 2-4 Reading Mar 31, 2012
- Reading 3-0 West Ham Dec 10, 2011
- West Ham 1-1 Reading Dec 26, 2007
Home
- Reading 2-2 Huddersfield
- Norwich 4-1 Reading
- Reading 2-2 Swansea
- Luton 0-0 Reading
- Reading 1-1 Cardiff
Away
- Northampton 1-2 West Ham
- Leyton Orient 0-09 West Ham
- Dundee 2-2 West Ham
- West 3-0 Southampton
- West Bromwich 1-3 west Ham
Reading team news
Reading will be without their captain Liam Moore who is representing Jamaica in the Gold Cup and one of the Royals’ three reported Covid-19 cases last week was an anonymous player who will also be unavailable for the clash.
West Ham team news
West Ham had players who represented their respective nations in the Euro 2020 and will miss the pre-season friendlies as they are still on their summer breaks and they include Lukasz Fabianski, Vladimir Coufal, Tomas Soucek, Declan Rice and Andriy Yarmolenko.
Prediction and odds
- West Ham win
- Goals over 2.5
- Bo0th teams to score
