Besiktas will kick off their defence of the Turkish Super Lig title on Friday, when they play host to Caykur Rizespor.
Sergen Yalcin's men narrowly pipped Galatasaray and Fenerbahce to the trophy at the end of last season, while their opponents finished 13th in a tight bottom half of the table.
Match preview
© Reuters
Besiktas found themselves in a heated battle for the Turkish Super Lig title last season, as themselves, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce all had stellar campaigns in the pursuit of the trophy.
Yalcin's men would not rise to the top of the division until January, but they did manage to hold onto that spot for the majority of the remainder of the campaign.
Despite second-placed Galatasaray finishing with a six-game winning run, and Besiktas suffering two defeats from their final three league games, the Kara Kartallar would pip the chasing side to the title by the barest of margins.
Following a crucial victory in the last league outing, they finished with a goal difference tally better than that of the second-placed side by a single goal, meaning any slip on the final day or a larger victory for Galatasaray would have seen Besiktas miss out on the title.
Nonetheless, that saw them win the Turkish top-flight title for the 16th time, breaking a four-year wait in the process, and they will be keen to retain the trophy this year.
While they did start the pre-season campaign with a 1-0 victory over Istanbul Basaksehir, a 3-0 defeat to Kayserispor and a 1-1 draw with Adana Demirspor followed, potentially providing slight cause for concern, although those worries would be dismissed with a dominant victory to kick off the new season.
Their opponents come into the season opener on the back of a 13th-placed finish last year.
After a disappointing start to the season, with just five victories from their opening 18 league games, Caykur Rizespor were unable to break into the top half of the table, despite an improvement as the season progressed.
Eye-catching back-to-back wins over sixth-placed Hatayspor and title-chasing Galatasaray were followed by another pair of victories as they defeated Antalyaspor and Konyaspor to move up to 11th, but a disappointing end to the campaign saw them drop back to 13th.
That was a relative progression for the Karadeniz Atmacasi, who finished in 15th spot when the 2019-20 season was brought to an abrupt ending, recording 48 points from 40 league games last year compared to a tally of 35 points from their 34 matches in the curtailed season.
Their pre-season campaign produced a 3-2 defeat to Kocaelispor and a 2-0 loss at the hands of Alanyaspor, but a victory over the defending champions to start the season would certainly give them plenty of confidence going forward.
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
Team News
Besiktas will come into Friday's game without new man Alex Teixeira, who remains in mandatory quarantine after his recent switch from Jiangsu Suning.
However, fellow summer arrivals Salih Ucan and Kenan Karaman will be eligible to play, and they should both feature prominently in attack from the start.
Centre-back Domagoj Vida has been a key man in Istanbul since his arrival in 2018, notching up over 100 appearances, and the 32-year-old will again lead the back four at the beginning of the new season.
Caykur Rizespor are set to have a full squad to pick from for Friday's encounter, with no major injury concerns heading into the new campaign.
New arrivals Sebastian Holmen, Gokhan Gonul and Alper Potuk are all expected to be handed debuts, while fellow summer signings Cemali Sertel, Lebogang Phiri, Bryan Dabo and Ronaldo Mendes are also knocking on the door.
The line will be led by experienced forward Loic Remy, who hit seven goals in 19 league appearances last season.
Besiktas possible starting lineup:
Destanoglou; Rosier, Welington, Vida, N'Sakala; Hutchinson, Souza; Larin, Ucan, Nkoudou; Karaman
Caykur Rizespor possible starting lineup:
Akkan; Gonul, Holmen, Ay, Melnjak; Umar, Potuk, Djokovic, Sabo, Boldrin; Remy
We say: Besiktas 2-0 Caykur Rizespor
Besiktas will be desperate to start the season with a victory on Friday, and we see them doing that with relative comfort on home turf.
With Fenerbahce and Galatasaray starting their seasons on Sunday and Monday respectively, Yalcin's men have a chance to move ahead of the competition straight away, an opportunity they should not pass up.
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 Besiktas win with a probability of 69.83%. A draw had a probability of 17.5% and a win for Caykur Rizespor had a probability of 12.67%.
The most likely scoreline for a Besiktas win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.68%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.63%) and 1-0 (9.06%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.16%), while for a Caykur Rizespor win it was 1-2 (3.68%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with an 8.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Besiktas would win this match.
