Raphael Durand
Dailysports's expert
One of the matches of the 31st round of the Turkish Championship will be played on Saturday at the Tupras Stadium, where the local Besiktas will host Basaksehir. I suggest betting on the outcome of this clash with a good coefficient.
Match preview
Despite a painful defeat to Goztepe in the Turkish Cup (1-3), it's clearly premature to write off Besiktas. In the championship, the 'Black Eagles' reminded everyone of their strength with a powerful performance, defeating Galatasaray 2-1 in the last round.
However, in the following round, the Eagles stumbled again, drawing away with Kasimpasa 1-1. Currently, the team has 48 points and is in fourth place in the standings. They are just one point ahead of Eyupspor and three points behind Samsunspor. On the other hand, Besiktas has one game in hand.
Meanwhile, Basaksehir is striving to latch onto the European cup zone but has not been successful so far — the gap to the top four is not closing. Twelve wins and six draws since the start of the season are far from a failure, but not the pace needed to fight for the elite. Their attack is quite lively with 45 goals scored, but the defensive line is showing serious lapses: 38 goals conceded is a worrying sign for Cagdas Atan's staff.
In the last two rounds, the team has collected maximum points, first defeating Eyupspor away 3-1, and last weekend narrowly edged out Konyaspor at home 1-0. In 13 away matches, Basaksehir has only secured 4 victories while suffering 7 defeats.
Probable lineups
- Besiktas: Destanoglu – Svensson, Paulista, Topcu, Masuaku – Fernandes, Oxlade-Chamberlain – Rashica, Joao Mario, Muci – Rafa Silva
- Basaksehir: Sengizer, Duarte, Ba, Lima, Opoku, Ozdemir, Sahiner, Sari, Crespo, Gunes, Piatek
Match facts and head-to-head
- In the first round, the teams drew 0-0
- The bet on 'Total over 2.5' has not won in the last five matches
- The 'Both teams to score' bet hit in one out of five matches
Prediction
We believe that the bookmakers clearly see the favorite here and offer odds of 1.83 for Besiktas to win. The Eagles have a good chance of victory, and our bet is on 'Besiktas to win'.
