Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kiev will lock horns at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium for the second leg of their Champions League qualifier on Wednesday.
The tie is nicely poised following last week's goalless draw in Poland, where Kiev's home match was played amid the war in Ukraine, with the winners of this contest facing Austrian side Sturm Graz in the third qualifying round.
Match preview
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Heading into the first leg, Fenerbahce had won each of their last five pre-season matches, scoring a total of 14 goals and netting at least twice in four of those games.
However, they were unable to breach Kiev's backline and convert any of their 12 attempts on goal last week, with the Turkish giants extending their winless head-to-head record against the Ukrainian outfit to five matches.
Nevertheless, Fenerbahce remain firmly in the tie and are still in with a chance of moving one step closer to qualifying for their first Champions League group stage since the 2008-09 campaign.
Newly-appointed head coach Jorge Jesus, who guided Benfica to the Champions League quarter-finals last season, is tasked with returning the Yellow Canaries to Europe's elite club competition as well as mounting a Super Lig title challenge, with the 19-time top-flight champions seeking their first crown since 2014.
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Dynamo Kiev, meanwhile, suffered back-to-back friendly defeats against Lyon and Royal Antwerp in pre-season before playing out the goalless draw with Fenerbahce last week.
Their two most recent warm-up matches are part of a nine-game 'Stop the War, Play for Peace' international tour across Europe, amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
After their second-leg clash on Wednesday, Kiev will travel to Goodison Park for a charity fundraising game against Everton on July 29, with proceeds going directly to humanitarian charities supporting the people of Ukraine.
With no Ukrainian Premier League fixtures scheduled for the 2022-23 campaign, Mircea Lucescu's side only have competitive European matches to look forward to at present, and victory over Fenerbahce would see them edge closer to reaching the Champions League group stage for a third successive season.
Defeat for the Blue and Whites, however, would see them drop into the Europa League third qualifying round, with the same applying for Fenerbahce if they were to lose on Wednesday.
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Team News
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Fenerbahce have bolstered their squad with nine new signings this summer, including striker Joao Pedro who has ended his eight-year spell with Cagliari to join the Turkish giants, and he could be in line for his debut on Wednesday.
Fellow new recruits Diego Rossi, Joshua King, Lincoln, Bruma and William Arao all played in the first leg and they are set to feature again for the hosts in midweek.
Nazim Sangare remains sidelined with an ACL injury, while Kim Min-jae – who has been strongly linked with a move to Napoli – could miss out again amid uncertainty over his future, with Attila Szalai and Serdar Aziz expected to continue at centre-back.
As for Dynamo Kiev, Lucescu is unlikely to make too many changes, if any, to the starting lineup which began the first leg.
Highly-rated 19-year-old Illya Zabarnyi is expected to start at centre-back, joining Tomasz Kedziora, Denys Popov and Vladyslav Dubinchak in the back four.
Former Fenerbahce loanee Oleksandr Karavaev will be hoping to force his way into the first XI ahead of Viktor Tsyhankov, while Vitaliy Buyalskyi and Artem Besedin are the two most likely candidates to start in attack.
Fenerbahce possible starting lineup:
Bayindir; Osayi-Samuel, Aziz, Szalai, Kadioglu; Kahveci, Yuksek, Arao; Rossi, Dursun, King
Dynamo Kiev possible starting lineup:
Bushchan; Kedziora, Popov, Zabarnyi, Dubinchak; Tsyhankov, Harmash, Shaparenko, Verbic; Buyalskyi; Besyedin
We say: Fenerbahce 1-1 Dynamo Kiev (Fenerbahce to win 2-1 after extra time)
Both sides cancelled each other out in the first leg last week and another closely-fought contest is set to be played out on Wednesday.
There has to be a winner in the second leg, however, and while the tie may not be settled in 90 minutes, we feel that Fenerbahce will do enough to edge themselves through to the next round.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Oliver Thomas
