Yeni Malatyaspor and Fatih Karagumruk will attempt to extend their bright starts to the season when they square off in Super Lig action on Friday evening.
Both clubs have collected two wins from four matches, with the visitors in a position where they will move joint-top with victory at the New Malatya Stadium.
Match preview
Fatih Karagumruk have been one of the stories of Turkish football over the past few years, earning back-to-back promotions and claiming eighth position on their return to the top flight.
Naturally, suggestions have been made over whether they have reached their ceiling, but claiming seven points from a possible 12 have put Francesco Farioli's side in a favourable spot.
While caution is required with each of those points coming against teams currently featuring in the bottom seven, the Black Red thrashed Adana Demirspor by a 4-0 scoreline in their first game after the international break.
Karagumruk also impressed in losing just 1-0 at unbeaten leaders Besiktas, and there is genuine optimism that they can qualify for the Europa League or Europa Conference League.
The defence deserve credit for conceding just three goals, but Aleksandar Pesic has caught the eye at the other end of the pitch with three strikes of his own.
Malatyaspor will also be delighted with their start to the campaign, their two defeats coming against early pacesetters Besiktas and Trabzonspor.
Even though they were comfortably beaten by both teams, Irfan Buz will instead focus on the victories achieved against Goztepe SK and Gaziantep FK.
Clean sheets were kept during both fixtures, a considerable show of character after shipping five goals on the opening day of the season.
Benjamin Tetteh and Adem Buyuk shared Malatyaspor's four goals during August, helped by two assists from Rayane Aabid.
- L
- W
- W
- L
- W
- D
- L
- W
Team News
Malatyaspor continue to cope with a number of injury issues with Ertac Ozbir, Karim Hefaz and Tetteh all on the sidelines.
Goalkeeper Abdulsamed Damlu will make his third successive appearance between the sticks, while Oussame Haddadi and Kubilay Kanatsizkus should feature at left wing-back and in attack respectively.
Karagumruk are dealing with even more injuries, most notably those of defender Medhi Benatia and Emre Mor.
While Fabio Borini is making progress towards a return, the Italian is again expected to miss out here due to a lack of fitness.
Farioli may stick with the team which breezed past Demirspor last time out.
Yeni Malatyaspor possible starting lineup:
Damlu; Wallace, Kaya, Ciftpinar; Eskilhellac, Nshimirimana, Ndong, Aabid, Haddadi; Buyuk, Kanatsizkus
Fatih Karagumruk possible starting lineup:
Viviano; Hedenstad, Luckassen, Zukanovic, Erkin; Oztumer, Biglia, Bertolacci; Torun, Pesic, Frei
We say: Yeni Malatyaspor 2-2 Fatih Karagumruk
With both teams having the freedom to push for all three points, we expect an entertaining encounter on Friday night.
However, these sides could cancel each other out, eventually having to settle for a share of the spoils.
Top tip
Darren Plant
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 Yeni Malatyaspor win with a probability of 41.66%. A win for Fatih Karagumruk had a probability of 32.26% and a draw had a probability of 26.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Yeni Malatyaspor win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.22%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.77%) and 2-0 (7.23%). The likeliest Fatih Karagumruk win was 0-1 (8.77%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.4%). The actual scoreline of 3-4 was predicted with a 0.3% likelihood.
