Umraniyespor will hope to keep their fading Turkish Super Lig survival hopes alive on Friday, when they travel to take on Alanyaspor.
The visitors currently sit six points adrift of safety after 29 league outings, while their hosts find themselves 11th and within touching distance of the top half heading into the final run-in.
Match preview
Following a thrashing of Trabzonspor and a draw with Fatih Karagumruk in mid-January, Alanyaspor sat in a relatively strong position in ninth place in the Turkish Super Lig with 25 points on the board from their opening 19 outings, although they would then hit a concerning dip in form, firstly losing each of the following three matches prior to the enforced break in play caused by the Turkey-Syria Earthquake.
Former manager Francesco Farioli would depart during the month-long layoff, and under the new charge of Ersun Yanal, they would at least return to action with a 1-0 victory over Istanbul Basaksehir in March, before suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Ankaragucu and Fenerbahce and playing out a disappointing draw with Giresunspor.
That tough run producing just one victory from eight matches was then halted, as they picked up three points from a scheduled meeting with Hatayspor, who withdrew from the league following the earthquake, but Alanyaspor's poor form would continue with a 3-1 defeat away at Antalyaspor earlier this month.
After then suffering a 4-1 beating at home to Galatasaray last Tuesday, despite Efecan Karaca drawing them level at a goal apiece in the 17th minute, as Mauro Icardi, Dries Mertens and Milot Rashica went on to find the net for the visitors, Friday's hosts were not in action over the weekend, instead seeing another three point added to their tally having been scheduled to take on Gaziantep, the other side to pull out of the league earlier this year.
While that did take them back up to 11th place in Turkey's top flight, Alanyaspor will be concerned by the fact that they have only won one of their last 10 competitive outings in the Super Lig, and now under the new management of Omer Erdogan, they will be keen to correct their form and move back towards the top half in the final run of the campaign.
They meet an Umraniyespor side who are also under relatively new management in their increasingly desperate survival bid this season.
After winning promotion to the Turkish top flight for the first time in their history last year, Friday's visitors have continuously found themselves in the fight at the bottom end of the division, and after sitting on just 15 points from their opening 22 matches, they gave their survival hopes a boost with a 2-1 victory away at defending champions Trabzonspor in early March before picking up three more points from a scheduled meeting with Gaziantep.
They have been unable to move closer to safety since, though, failing to put another win on the board in their last five games, having firstly drawn 1-1 away at Kasimpasa before being held to a 2-2 draw at home to Konyaspor, with Soner Dikmen drawing their visitors level in the 97th minute after Onur Ayik looked to have netted the winning goal for Umraniyespor in the dying embers.
In back-to-back away trips to Kayserispor and Fatih Karagumruk, they would then suffer 3-1 and 4-2 defeats respectively, triggering the departure of promotion-winning Recep Ucar, with Mustafa Er taking over immediately and beginning his tenure with an unenviable home contest against Besiktas last time out, and they would eventually be beaten 2-0 with Nathan Redmond and Vincent Aboubakar netting the goals for the visitors.
As a result of their tough campaign, the visitors find themselves 18th in the lower of the two available relegation places after the withdrawal of Gaziantep and Hatayspor, and with a six-point gap to safety, they will know that any hopes of surviving for a second straight top-flight term.
Team News
Alanyaspor will remain without midfielder Umut Gunes, who remains suspended after being shown a red card in their defeat to Antalyaspor, while their issues in the middle worsened in the Galatasaray contest, as Idrissa Doumbia was given an eighth league yellow card of the season, meaning he will also have to sit out on Friday.
Given those absences, Efkan Bekiroglu will likely come in from the outset to join Leroy Fer and Arnaud Lusamba in the engine room.
The line will again be led by Ahmed Hassan, who has netted nine Super Lig goals since arriving on loan from Olympiacos, while Efecan Kacara and Fulham loanee Ivan Cavaleiro will provide additional threat from the wings.
In his second game at the helm, Mustafa Er may opt to deploy an unchanged Umraniyespor starting XI from their 2-0 defeat to Besiktas, with Isaac Sackey and Tomislav Glumac bound to again partner up in the middle of a back four.
Umut Nayir will continue to spearhead the attack, having played a crucial role throughout the season with 12 league goals to his name thus far.
Antonio Mrsic is fighting to come into the midfield from the outset, after Oguz Gurbulak and Kartal Yilmaz joined Durel Avounou last time out.
Alanyaspor possible starting lineup:
Runarsson; Pereira, Aksoy, Rassoul, Ozdemir; Lusamba, Fer, Bekiroglu; Karaca, Hassan, Cavaleiro
Umraniyespor possible starting lineup:
Ozdemir; Popov, Sackey, Glumac, Atasayar; Mrsic, Yilmaz, Avounou; Geraldo, Nayir, Kayode
We say: Alanyaspor 1-1 Umraniyespor
While Umraniyespor have not fared well in recent weeks or throughout the season thus far, their hosts are certainly not full of confidence either and cannot see a victory over their 18th-placed visitors as a formality.
The away side were certainly not disgraced under their new manager against giants Besiktas, and we see them at least avoiding defeat on Friday.
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