Looking to pick up their first win of the season, Caykur Rizespor welcome Altay to the Estadio Caykur Didi in round six of the Turkish Super Lig on Tuesday.
The visitors, meanwhile, claimed a morale-boosting win last time out when they edged out Goztepe, and will look to keep the juggernaut rolling.
Match preview
Caykur Rizespor failed to end their struggles in the Super Lig as they fell to a 3-1 defeat against Adana Demirspor at the New Adana Stadium last Saturday.
Fernando Boldrin pulled one back for Bulent Uygun's men in the 51st minute after Mario Balotelli and Matias Vargas put Adana Demirspor two goals up, but Birkir Bjarnason struck thirteen minutes later to restore the Mavi Simsekler's two-goal lead.
This was a seventh defeat in eight games across all competitions for Caykur Rizespor, with the goalless draw against Fatih Karagumruk on August 21 being the only exception.
With one point from their five league games, the Karadeniz Atmacasi are currently rooted to the bottom of the Super Lig table, and their poor start to the campaign has been due to their struggles at the defensive end of the pitch, where they have conceded the second-most goals so far.
While Caykur Rizespor will be looking to find their feet, next up is an opposing side who they have failed to beat in the most recent four meetings between the sides, losing twice and picking up two draws.
Altay, on the other hand, returned to winning ways last Friday, when they saw off Goztepe 2-1 at the Alsancak Stadium.
In a frenetic contest between the two sides, Soner Aydogdu scored to hand the visitors a one-goal lead heading into the interval, but Leandro Kappel and Marco Paixao netted in the second half to turn the game on its head.
Prior to that, Mustafa Denizli's side suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Fenerbahce to end their nine-game winning streak before losing 3-1 against Konyaspor last Saturday.
The Buyuk Altay, who could move into third place in the league standings with a victory, will now hope the win last time out can serve as a springboard for another fine run of form.
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Team News
Uygun will be unable to call upon Brazilian midfielder Ronaldo Mendes, who picked up an ankle injury in the goalless draw against Fatih Karagumruk last month.
Fellow midfielder Bryan Dabo is also out of contention for the game after sustaining an injury while on international duty for Burkina Faso against Algeria on September 7.
Meanwhile, Altay will take to the pitch without the services of Chilean midfielder Cesar Pinares, who missed the game last time out after sustaining an injury against Konyaspor two Saturdays ago.
Ziya Alkurt is another player on the club's injury table, having missed the opening five games, while Turkish defender Sefa Ozdemir is currently recuperating from a long-term injury.
Following his side's impressive display against Goztepe last time out, Denizli could name an unchanged XI, meaning we should see the attacking trio of Leandro Kappel, Martin Rodriguez and Daouda Karamoko Bamba for the fifth game this term.
Caykur Rizespor possible starting lineup:
Akkan; Baiano, Ay, Holmen, Koc; Dokovic, Sabo; Boyd, Boldrin, Bolasie; Joel Pohjanpalo
Altay possible starting lineup:
Lis; Karayel, Thiam, Akca, Naderi; Poko, Yildirim, Thaciano; Kappel, Rodriguez, Bamba
We say: Caykur Rizespor 0-2 Altay
Altay will head into the game in high spirits following their victory over Goztepe last Friday, and they take on an out-of-sorts Caykur Rizespor side who are without a win this season.
We predict Mustafa Denizli's side will maintain their unbeaten run against the hosts and come away with all three points.
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 Altay win with a probability of 43.39%. A win for Caykur Rizespor had a probability of 31.29% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for an Altay win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.67%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.02%) and 0-2 (7.28%). The likeliest Caykur Rizespor win was 1-0 (7.96%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.98%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Altay would win this match.
