Winless in their last three games in all competitions, Fatih Karagumruk will bid to return to winning ways when they play host to Kayserispor on Friday in the Super Lig.
Like their opponents, the visitors are also experiencing a bout of poor form, having lost their last three league matches.
Match preview
Fatih Karagumruk enter Friday's fixture in ninth position and with seven points separating them from the top four, hopes of qualifying for European competition look to have dissipated.
Although after earning promotion to the top flight in 2020, Fatih Karagumruk will be pleased that they have experienced another successful season.
The main goal for the rest of the campaign will be to match or better last season's eighth-placed finish, but if they are to achieve that aim, then an upturn in form is needed.
After playing out a goalless home draw with Altay, Volkan Demirel's side headed on their travels for their most recent encounter, but it proved to be a fruitless trip as they fell to a demoralising 3-0 defeat against Hatayspor.
They do, however, return to home comforts on Friday, and the hosts will be encouraged by a run of results that has seen them lose just once in their last eight home games in all competitions.
Meanwhile, 10th-placed Kayserispor could move above their opponents with a victory on Friday as they look to secure a top-half finish.
A win on Friday would also see Kayserispor match the 41 points that they achieved in the whole of last season, which would represent progress for a side that finished just a point outside the drop zone last term.
Despite enjoying a promising campaign, Hikmet Karaman will be disappointed to see his side fall to defeat in their last three league outings.
The most recent of those losses came against Konyaspor at the weekend, despite Kayserispor scoring two goals in the opening 14 minutes courtesy of strikes from Abdulkadir Parmak and Mario Gavranovic.
However, a Guilherme spot-kick and a Sokol Cikalleshi brace helped Konyaspor come from two goals down to win 3-2, ensuring that Karaman's side enter Friday's contest in a downbeat mood.
- W
- L
- W
- W
- D
- L
- L
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
- L
- D
- W
- L
- W
- L
- L
Team News
Fabio Borini, Derrick Luckassen, Ervin Zukanovic and Rayyan Baniya are all expected to miss out for the hosts due to injury issues.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Durmaz could return to the side after dropping down to the bench for Fatih Karagumruk's most recent fixture.
Top-scorer Aleksandar Pesic made his first appearance since January against Hatayspor, and he could come into the side for Friday's contest.
As for the visitors, they are without the services of Lionel Carole, who will serve a one-match suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards.
Mame Baba Thiam is also expected to be absent, with injury ruling the forward out of Kayserispor's last three matches.
Ibrahim Akdag, meanwhile, could come back into the starting lineup after dropping down to the bench for the encounter with Konyaspor.
Fatih Karagumruk possible starting lineup:
Viviano; Dursun, Biraschi, Balkovec, Erkin; Bistrovic, Toure, Biglia, Durmaz, Musa; Pesic
Kayserispor possible starting lineup:
Bayazit; Bulut, Demirok, Hosseini, Kolovetsios; Mane, Attamah, Akdag, Parmak, Cardoso; Gavranovic
We say: Fatih Karagumruk 1-1 Kayserispor
With two points separating the sides in the league table, we suspect that this will be a hard-fought contest and it could be an encounter where both teams are content with a point following a tricky run of results for either side.
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 Fatih Karagumruk win with a probability of 60.77%. A draw had a probability of 21.7% and a win for Kayserispor had a probability of 17.54%.
The most likely scoreline for a Fatih Karagumruk win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.15%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.72%) and 2-1 (9.91%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.3%), while for a Kayserispor win it was 0-1 (5.36%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 6.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Fatih Karagumruk would win this match.
