Still in with a chance of pipping Fenerbahce to a top-two finish in the final gameweek of the Turkish Super Lig season, Besiktas host Konyaspor at Vodafone Park on Wednesday evening.
Senol Gunes's side produced an attacking masterclass to thump Kasimpasa 5-2 last time out, while their seventh-placed visitors shook hands on a 1-1 draw with Fatih Karagumruk.
Match preview
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Despite finding the back of the net at an incredible rate during the spring, a plethora of autumnal wobbles prevented Besiktas from staking their claim at the top of the Turkish Super Lig table this season, as champions Galatasaray ride off into the sunset.
However, Gunes's side are guaranteed to finish either second or third by the close of play in midweek - a marked improvement on their sixth-placed ranking from last season - and a spot in the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League will soon await them.
Cenk Tosun may not have made a name for himself at Everton, but the striker put on quite the show in Saturday's meeting with Kasimpasa, scoring once and setting up two more goals in a dominant Besiktas victory, where Vincent Aboubakar, Gedson Fernandes, Atiba Hutchinson and Tayfur Bingol were also on target.
Sitting on the final podium spot with 77 points to their name, the Black Eagles will enter Wednesday's game three points behind Fenerbahce - who will be awarded a 3-0 win against the now-absent Gaziantep - and they must therefore slaughter Konyaspor by five goals to force their way into second place.
Such a result is not beyond the realm of possibility, as Besiktas have scored at least three goals in each of their last five Turkish Super Lig matches and have won each of their last six at Vodafone Park, where they have conceded a league-low 12 home goals all season.
Those statistics do not make for pleasant reading for the Konyaspor faithful, but the visitors have also held their own more often than not during the second half of the campaign and will have a top-eight finish to shout about come the final whistle this week.
Konyaspor's trajectory has been the opposite to that of Besiktas, though, as the visitors will settle for a low top-half finish after managing to sneak into third place last season, and a failure to convert draws into wins can largely be blamed for such a decline.
Aleksandar Stanojevic's men were held to a stalemate for the 14th time this season during a chaotic encounter with Karagumruk at the weekend, where the Konyaspor head coach was cautioned twice for dissent within a minute and subsequently sent to the stands, having been left furious at the circumstances that led to Mbaye Diagne's injury-time equaliser in the first half.
Konyaspor cannot rise any higher up the table with a win on Wednesday and may be bumped down to eighth if Karagumruk overcome Kasimpasa - giving Stanojevic another reason to leave the Black Red off his Christmas card list - but only the top three teams have performed better than the Anatolian Eagle away from home this season.
Besiktas scraped a 2-1 win on Konyaspor's turf during the sides' encounter back in January, though, and the visitors have not beaten the hosts away from home since the 2005-06 campaign; even then it took an own goal for Ibrahim Toraman to propel the Anatolian Eagle to a 1-0 success.
Team News
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Besiktas will both welcome a defender back from suspension while losing another to the naughty step this week, as centre-back Omar Colley is available again, but Arthur Masuaku collected a milestone yellow card in the thrashing of Kasimpasa.
Masuaku's absence will open the door for Umut Meras to start at Vodafone Park, while Tayyib Talha Sanuc and Onur Bulut continue their recoveries from knee injuries, and goalkeeper Ersin Destanoglu recently underwent an appendectomy, sidelining him for a while too.
Several recognisable names in Romain Saiss, Nathan Redmond, Alexandru Maxim and Rachid Ghezzal also missed the weekend's win for various reasons, and while there have been conflicting reports over Redmond's availability in particular, Gunes should not take any unnecessary risks with European qualification assured.
As well as Konyaspor head coach Stanojevic, the visitors will also work around the suspension of centre-back Francisco Calvo, who was also cautioned for dissent during the fallout from Diagne's goal at the weekend.
The Anatolian Eagle also lost experienced midfielder Andreas Bouchalakis to injury within just seven minutes of Saturday's game, so a recall for Bruno Paz in the engine room should be in order, while Uche Ikpeazu (muscle), Muhammet Demir (foot) and Endri Cekici (foot) remain on the sidelines too.
With Calvo serving a one-game suspension, Kahraman Demirtas and Ugurcan Yazgili will battle to start alongside Adil Demirbag at the back, while former Manchester United and Stoke City striker Mame Diouf leads the line seeking to score for the 10th time this season.
Besiktas possible starting lineup:
Gunok; Rosier, Colley, Uysal, Meras; Hutchinson, Ucan; Muleka, Fernandes, Tosun; Aboubakar
Konyaspor possible starting lineup:
Sehic; Oguz, Demirbag, Yazgili, Guilherme; Paz, Dikmen; Michalak, Pozuelo, Moreno; Diouf
We say: Besiktas 3-0 Konyaspor
Coupling defensive mastery at Vodafone Park with a taste for goals at the other end of the field, Besiktas should finish the season as they mean to go on next term.
While it may be too much of an ask for Gunes's side to force their way into the top two, the home crowd should lay witness to a thumping win to close out the season, with Konyaspor's impressive away streak surely counting for nought.
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Top tip
Ben Knapton
