Nottingham Forest will host Cardiff City with both teams looking to rebound from opening day defeats. Forest were beaten 2-0 by Queens Park Rangers while Cardiff also fell 2-0, at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

Manager comments

Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi is looking for his side to adopt a stronger mentality as they entertain last season's play-off semifinalists, who are also looking for their first three points of the season.

"After the defeat, we want to be stronger, more solid and it is not an easy process to change a mentality but we are in a good way. The new players need a little bit of time but we don't have time. We need points and to win, to find the same spirit as last season.

"We will face a difficult team on Saturday, they need points like us in the second game only, and we need to focus only on that. We need to try our best but with a little bit different from the game on Saturday.

"We gave them the points, we gave them the goals and the mistakes, and we need to avoid those mistakes. We need to play more, and play more, we need confidence. That is always after a good result, a good performance and hopefully on Saturday I can say that after the game.”

Cardiff manager Neil Harris is excited for the Bluebirds trip to the City Ground and is looking forward to the challenge that awaits his side.

"We're really looking forward to it. It's a great fixture. Forest will obviously be disappointed with their defeat at QPR last week as well. So, they'll be looking to get off the mark on the league table, same as us. 

"We had two really good games with them last season, really close games and we were neck-and-neck at one point towards the end of the season. It's a cracking game to look forward to and the players will be ready for it.

"We've had a good week on the training pitch and we certainly look forward to the battle that it's going to be up at the City ground."

Team news

Tiago Silva is still sidelined and will likely miss a couple of more weeks while Joe Lolley is available after overcoming a shin injury. A pair of new arrivals to Forest will be considered for selection in highly-rated defender Loic Mbe Soh, who signed from Paris Saint-Germain and goalkeeper Abdoulaye Diallo.

Gavin Whyte will miss out for Cardiff as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury as will Isaac Vassell while Lee Tomlin and Josh Murphy are pushing for a recall into Neil Harris' starting XI. Joe Ralls is ready to see action after dealing with his injury issue.

Predicted lineups

Nottingham Forest: (4-2-3-1) Samba; Jenkinson, Worrall, Figureido, Blackett; Colback; Yates; Lolley, Freeman, Ameobi; Grabban.

Cardiff City: (4-3-3) Smithies; Bennett, Olson, Nelson, Osei-Tutu; Tomlin, Bacuna, Vaulks; Hoilett, Murphy, Moore.

Head-to-Head

Cardiff have dominated Forest, winning 13 of the 17 matches in the series. The Bluebirds have won their last five visits to the City Ground, including a 1-0 victory in February with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing scoring the only goal of the contest.

Ones to watch

Lewis Grabban is the key man in attack for the Reds, having finished third in the division in goals scored last season. Joe Worrall is the rock in defense, having started every game last season while Brice Samba kept 13 clean sheets after moving from SM Caen.

Josh Murphy has always played his best against Forest, having scored two goals and assisting on two others in six career games. Ralls was key in helping the Bluebirds push on to the playoffs last season and Harris will be delighted to see him back in the side.

How to watch

This game will be shown live on Sky Sports beginning at 12:30 BST.