Ankaragucu and Trabzonspor raise the curtain on their respective 2024 involvements with a meeting at the Eryaman Stadium on Saturday evening.
The teams played out a share of the spoils in their last outings, and they will both be looking to go one better in this weekend's encounter.
Match preview
Ankaragucu had to settle for a point as they drew 1-1 against Pendikspor when the teams locked horns at the Pendik Stadyumu on Christmas Day.
Emre Belozoglu's men opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Efkan Bekiroglu but were pegged back 12 minutes from time by Alpaslan Ozturk.
As a result, MKE have dropped down to 11th in the Turkish Super Lig table and are now just three points afloat of the current bottom four.
Next up is the task of facing off against an opposing outfit who have only been beaten in one of the last 13 editions of this fixture since August 2010.
Averaging just one per goal in home matches this term, Saturday's hosts have work to do at the top end of the pitch in their bid to spark a change of fortunes on home turf.
Trabzonspor and Istanbul Basaksehir simply could not be separated in their meeting at Papara Park on December 23, which ended in a 1-1 stalemate.
Abdullah Avci's men found themselves behind to Dimitrios Pelkas's early opener before restoring parity through Batista Mendy 11 minutes shy of half time.
With 30 points picked up from 17 matches this term, the Burgundy Blues sit third in the standings, a whopping 14 points behind Fenerbahce and Galatasaray at the summit.
Currently on a run of three wins and two draws from their most recent five matches on the road, Saturday's visitors have established themselves as a force to reckon with away from home.
Team News
Mislav Orsic remains unavailable for selection with a long-term knee injury, which has seen him fail to feature for Trabzonspor since mid-July.
The away side will also be without the services of Umut Bozok, who is yet to fully recuperate from a muscle injury he picked up two months ago.
Thirty-one-year-old Tolga Cigerci is out of contention for the seventh Ankaragucu game in a row as he continues to nurse a thigh problem.
Gambian forward Ali Sowe is currently on international duty at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and will not play any part for the home side here.
Ankaragucu possible starting lineup:
Gungordu; Uludag, Mujakic, Radakovic, Cankaya; Guneren, Pedrinho; Morutan, Bekiroglu, Cephas; Bajic
Trabzonspor possible starting lineup:
Cakir; Elmali, Denswil, Mendy, Stryger-Larsen; Ozdemir, Omur, Bakasetas; Visca, Trezeguet, Onuachu
We say: Ankaragucu 0-1 Trabzonspor
Trabzonspor have been enjoying a field day in front of goal recently, but we can see them putting on a relatively quiet attacking display here. Nonetheless, we are backing the visitors to get the job done come the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
