Pendikspor and Hatayspor will do battle at Pendik Stadyumu on Saturday in the opening round of matches of the 2023-24 Turkish Super Lig season.
The hosts will be keen to make a winning start to life in the top flight having recently gained promotion, while the away side target a successful campaign after their season was cut short last time out due to tragedy.
Match preview
Hatayspor showed great resolve to secure a comeback 2-1 victory over Antalyaspor in the sides' friendly at Yeni Hatay Stadyumu on Saturday.
Volkan Demirel's men trailed to Adam Buksa's 18th-minute opener but drew level through Bertug Yildirim 10 minutes before the interval, after which Joelson Fernandes grabbed the winner midway through the second period.
Consequently, Guneyin Yildizi have now won thee of their last four matches, with a 4-0 defeat to Serie A champions Napoli the only exception in that time.
Next up is the challenge of an opposing outfit with just one victory from the previous five editions of this fixture across all competitions.
Having recently secured a first away win in 13 games, Saturday's visitors will be looking to make it consecutive wins on the road for the first time since the turn of the year.
Pendikspor were on the receiving end of a 2-0 defeat against Kocaelispor when the teams locked horns at Kocaeli Stadyumu on Saturday evening.
A first-half double from Atabey Cicek 18 minutes apart was enough to put Osman Ozkoylu's men to the sword in what was a largely one-sided affair.
That was a second defeat in three outings for Pendikspor who ended their pre-season campaign with just one win from five matches, all of which came against fellow Turkish opponents.
Unbeaten in all but one of their last 13 matches on home turf, Saturday's hosts will be confident of picking up a positive result in front of their fans.
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Team News
Twenty-seven-year-old Joher Rassoul is sidelined with a muscle injury and will not be playing any part for Pendikspor in this weekend's affair.
Gorkem Bitin is responsible for each of the home side's last three goals, making the forward certainly one to keep a close watch on here.
Nikola Maksimovic has not featured since April due to a long-term knee problem, and the Serb remains a long way off making a return to action.
Abdullah Yigiter remains unavailable for selection having missed 12 consecutive matches for the away side through a damaged Achilles tendon.
Pendikspor possible starting lineup:
Ogur; Akca, Sequeira, Welinton, Oztorun; Aosman, Kaya, Kilic; Bitin, Diaby, Erdem
Hatayspor possible starting lineup:
Kardesler; Aksoy, Demir, Oksuz, Corekci; Saglam, Dele-Bashiru, Aburjania; Fernandes, Lobjanidze, Yildirim
We say: Pendikspor 2-1 Hatayspor
Pendikspor's home form heading into this one means that it is hard to bet against them coming away with all three points. We fancy the hosts to get the job done, albeit by only a narrow margin.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
