Galatasaray will bring their disappointing 2021-22 Super Lig season to a close on Friday evening, with the Istanbul giants making the trip to Antalyaspor.
The visitors are currently 11th in the table, some 30 points behind champions Trabzonspor, while Antalyaspor occupy seventh, seven points ahead of their opponents in this match.
Match preview
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Antalyaspor finished 16th in the Super Lig last season, but they are currently up in seventh spot in the table, boasting 58 points from their 37 matches this term, winning 16, drawing 10 and losing 11 times in the league.
Nuri Sahin's side will enter this match off the back of successive victories, having beaten Konyaspor 3-2 on May 9 before recording a 4-2 victory over Kasimpasa last weekend, while they are unbeaten at this level of football since January 20, with their recent form incredibly impressive.
Antalyaspor have been strong on home soil this season, winning 10, drawing five and losing three of their 18 matches to collect 35 points, which is the fifth-best record in the division.
The Scorpions, who have been present in the top flight of Turkish football since 2015, have not actually beaten Galatasaray in the league since April 2016, suffering a 2-0 loss in the reverse match earlier this term.
However, this is far from a dominant Galatasaray outfit, with the Istanbul outfit currently sitting down in 11th spot in the table, having struggled throughout the season.
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Galatasaray are 22-time Super Lig champions, while they have finished as runners-up on another 11 occasions, including last season, when they lost out to Besiktas despite finishing level on points with their rivals.
Gala have not finished lower than sixth in Turkey's top flight since 2011, but they are currently in 11th spot in the table, having won 14, drawn nine and lost 14 of their 37 games to collect 51 points.
Domenec Torrent's side could still finish ninth depending on other results, but they could also drop down to 13th, so the visitors will be desperate to end their campaign on a high.
Galatasaray have actually won three of their last five in the league, including a 3-2 success over Adana Demirspor on Monday, which followed a goalless draw with Istanbul Basaksehir.
Torrent's team, who have only won four times on their travels in the league this term, competed in the Europa League this season, meanwhile, with their journey ending in the last-16 stage of the competition, losing 2-1 on aggregate to Barcelona.
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Team News
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Antalyaspor will be missing Admir Mehmedi on Friday due to a muscular problem, while Harun Alpsoy remains on the sidelines for the home side.
The team did not suffer any fresh issues against Kasimpasa last time out, though, and it would not be a surprise to see the same group of players take to the field for the first whistle.
Haji Wright scored his 14th league goal of the season in the team's last match, and the 24-year-old is again expected to lead the line against Galatasaray.
The visitors, meanwhile, will be without the services of Omar Elabdellaoui due to a back problem, but they are otherwise in good shape ahead of the contest.
Bafetimbi Gomis scored twice in the victory over Demirspor on Monday and is again likely to operate in the centre-forward position, with Ryan Babel playing off the right.
Head coach Torrent has plenty of options for change in the final third, though, with Mostafa Mohamed and Sofiane Feghouli among the players pushing to be involved from the first whistle.
Antalyaspor possible starting lineup:
Boffin; Balci, Ozturk, Naldo, Vural; Fredy, Fernando; Ndao, Adriano, Sinik; Wright
Galatasaray possible starting lineup:
Muslera; Boey, Nelsson, Marcao, Van Aanholt; Kutlu, Pulgar; Babel, Dervisoglu, Akturkoglu; Gomis
We say: Antalyaspor 1-1 Galatasaray
Galatasaray will be looking to end a disappointing season on a positive note, but the home side are on a long unbeaten run, so we are finding it difficult to back Antalyaspor to lose. As a result, we are expecting the two teams to play out a low-scoring draw in their final match of the campaign.
Matt Law
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 Antalyaspor win with a probability of 44.68%. A win for Galatasaray had a probability of 29.56% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.
The most likely scoreline for an Antalyaspor win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.59%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.08%) and 2-0 (7.85%). The likeliest Galatasaray win was 0-1 (8.26%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.24%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12.2% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-1 draw for this match.
