Hatayspor welcome defending Turkish Super Lig champions Trabzonspor to the New Hatay Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Volkan Demirel's side are languishing in the relegation zone, while the Black Sea Storm still have work to do if they want to secure their first consecutive top-flight league titles since 1979-80 and 1980-81.
Match preview
© Reuters
Winners of the 2019-20 TFF 1. League campaign, Hatayspor are on course to ply their trade back in the second division of Turkish football for the first time in three years.
Demirel's side are one point adrift of safety after only registering four victories throughout a demoralising opening half of the Super Lig season.
Victorious in only two of their last eight league matches at the New Hatay Stadium, however undefeated in their previous five games, Hatayspor were held to a goalless draw with fellow relegation adversaries Antalyaspor on January 7.
The Antakya-based side were then convincingly beaten by current league leaders Galatasaray - 4-0 - at the NEF Stadyumu six days later.
Possessing a Super Lig-low of only 15 goals throughout the campaign, Hatayspor head into the match on Saturday hoping to claim their first-ever head-to-head victory.
Stuttering in their title defence, Trabzonspor are winless in their last four away league matches dating back to a 2-1 victory over Kayserispor at the Kadir Has Stadium on October 1.
Sitting in fifth position in the standings, 10 points behind Galatasaray, Abdullah Avci's side, despite their woeful 2022-23 Super Lig travels, have been victorious in 10 of their 19 matches.
Before comprehensively sweeping aside Istanbulspor 4-0 last Sunday, Trabzonspor progressed to the quarter-finals of the Turkish Cup on the back of another four-star showcase in front of goal against Umraniye on January 18.
With aspirations of retaining their Super Lig title looking more unlikely with every passing week, Avci's side still have the fallback plan of preparing for successive UEFA-organised competitions, trailing Istanbul Basaksehir, who occupy the final Europa Conference League qualification position by only two points.
Trabzonspor form (all competitions):
- L
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Trabzonspor manager Abdullah Avci could name an unchanged starting XI following his side's victory over Istanbulspor.
After finding the back net on Sunday, Yusuf Yazici and Anastasios Bakasetas will again line up in midfield alongside Abdulkadir Omur and Djaniny.
The Black Sea Storm also possess strength in depth down on the substitutes' bench, with veteran midfielder Marek Hamsik, joint-top league goalscorer Trezeguet, Enis Bardhi and Jens Stryger Larsen all potential options for Avci.
Compared to his managerial counterpart, Volkan Demirel could contemplate making wholesale changes to his 11 after their defeat to Galatasaray, with defender Kaan Kanak and midfielder Onur Ergun in line to be restored to the Star of the South's starting team sheet.
Hatayspor's top scorer Ayoub El Kaabi is expected to lead the line at the New Hatay Stadium alongside Bertug Yildirim.
Hatayspor possible starting lineup:
Kardesler; Corekci, Vranjes, Yilmaz, Kanak; Boudjemaa, Ergun, Ribeiro, Lobjanidze, El Kaabi; Yildirim
Trabzonspor possible starting lineup:
Cakir; Peres, Bartra, Denswil, Elmali; Siopis, Omur, Bakasetas, Yazici, Djaniny; Gomez
We say: Hatayspor 1-3 Trabzonspor
Unbeaten across their head-to-head history, we predict that Trabzonspor will remain undefeated at 3pm on Saturday, plunging Hatayspor into further relegation turmoil.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
