Having avoided defeat in their last 11 league outings, Istanbul Basaksehir visit the Bahcesehir School Arena on Saturday to square up against Alanyaspor.
On the other hand, Alanyaspor are looking to make it back to back victories for the first time since October after returning to winning ways last time out.
Match preview
Basaksehir had to make do with a point for the second away game running following a 0-0 stalemate against Trabzonspor on Christmas Day.
Emre Belozoglu's men more than held their own versus the league leaders and were perhaps unlucky not to have come away with all three points at the Medical Park Stadium.
The Gray Owls remain third in the Super Lig standings, 13 points adrift of top spot despite picking up 27 of the last 33 available since a 3-1 defeat to Fatih Karagumruk.
Next up is for the Istanbul-based outfit is a crunch clash versus an opposing side who they have beaten only once in the last eight meetings between the teams dating back to 2018.
With only a third of their 33 points so far coming away from home, Saturday's hosts will need to get going on their travels to stand any chance of securing continental football next season.
Alanyaspor breezed into the last 16 of the Turkish Cup courtesy of a 5-0 victory over Mardin BB at the Bahcesehir School Arena on December 29.
A hat-trick from Khouma Babacar put Bulent Korkmaz's men in pole position to qualify while goals from Emre Akbaba and Oguz Aydin added more gloss to the scoreline.
However, Alanyaspor have only won one of their last six league matches and have dropped down to eighth place in the standings as a result.
Currently with the joint second-worst defensive record on home turf, this weekend's hosts have some tightening up to do at the back against their visitors who boast one of the division's fiercest attacks.
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Team News
Chidozie Awaziem is away on international duty with the Super Eagles of Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations and will not feature for Alanyaspor.
Fellow defender Cristian Borja is also unavailable for Sunday's contest as he is yet to recover from a muscle injury which he sustained at the start of December.
Edin Visca was on target the last time Basaksehir won this fixture, and the Bosnian will need to be at his best if his side are to claim another victory.
After scoring his first six goals on home turf, each of Stefano Okaka's last three goals have come away from home, and he will be looking to deliver the goods for the visitors once again.
Alanyaspor possible starting lineup:
Marafona; Juanfran, Bingol, Milunovic, Mevlja; Novais, Gunes, Bekiroglu; Davidson, Karaca, Babacar
Istanbul Basaksehir possible starting lineup:
Sengezer; Kaldirim, Duarte, Caicara, Ndayishimiye; Tekdemir, Ozcan, Aleksic; Okaka, Visca, Gulbrandsen
We say: Alanyaspor 1-1 Istanbul Basaksehir
Basaksehir have a poor record in this fixture but possess the better squad so we fancy them to avoid defeat in this one, albeit having to settle for a share of the spoils.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Alanyaspor win with a probability of 41.87%. A win for Istanbul Basaksehir had a probability of 33.17% and a draw had a probability of 25%.
The most likely scoreline for an Alanyaspor win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.89%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.88%) and 2-0 (6.73%). The likeliest Istanbul Basaksehir win was 1-2 (7.76%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.73%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-1 draw for this match.
