Aiming to kick off the new year on a winning note, Besiktas visit the Caykur Didi Stadyumu to lock horns with Caykur Rizespor on Sunday.
The away side also have an opportunity to complete a league double over their hosts following a 3-0 victory in August's reverse fixture at the Vodafone Park.
Match preview
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Besiktas completed the Turkish domestic treble after defeating Antalyaspor at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on Wednesday to claim the Super Cup.
Atiba Hutchinson scored at both ends of the pitch to send the game to penalties, where Mustapha Erdilman and Sheral Floranus both fluffed their lines from 12 yards.
Onder Karaveli's men have also secured progress into the last 16 of the Turkiye Kupasi following a 1-0 victory over Altay in their final outing of 2021.
However, the defending champions were defeated in their last league outings and are seventh in the Super Lig table, four points off the last European spot midway through the campaign.
Their next task comes against an opposing outfit who they have beaten in each of the last five meetings, and Sunday's hosts will back themselves to continue their dominance in this fixture.
Rizespor suffered a first loss in four league outings following a 1-0 defeat to Gaziantep on Boxing Day.
Alexandru Maxim opened the scoring from the spot in the penultimate minute of the first half, and that was enough to put Hamza Hamzaoglu's men to the sword.
The Black Sea Sparrowhawk continue to languish in the relegation zone, albeit only one point adrift of safety 19 games into the 2021-22 season.
Having let in the second most goals in the entire division so far, Sunday's hosts will need to tighten up at the back to stand any chance of coming away with a positive result.
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Team News
The Turkish trio of Mert Gunok, Gokhan Tore and Necip Uysal are all sidelined with knee injuries and will not feature for Besiktas.
The away side will also have to make do with the absence of Ajdin Hasic and Georges-Kevin N'Koudou, who are ruled with muscle and ankle injuries respectively.
Yannick Bolasie and Tyler Boyd continue to miss out through illness, while Lebogang Phiri is yet to shake off a knock.
Joel Pohjanpalo has scored three goals in his last four appearances for Rizespor and is one to keep an eye on this weekend.
Caykur Rizespor possible starting lineup:
Cetin; Sertel, Ay, Holmen, Baiano; Djokovic, Gonul; Umar, Boyd, Boldrin; Pohjanpalo
Besiktas possible starting lineup:
Destanoglu; Rosier, Hutchinson, Vida, Yilmaz; Bozdogan, Souza, Pjanic; Ghezzal, Larin, Batshuayi
We say: Caykur Rizespor 1-2 Besiktas
Buoyed by their trophy win last time out, Besiktas will head into the game with the wind in their sails, and we are backing them to secure all three points at the sound of the final whistle.
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 Besiktas win with a probability of 42.96%. A win for Caykur Rizespor had a probability of 31.72% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Besiktas win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.57%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.98%) and 0-2 (7.17%). The likeliest Caykur Rizespor win was 1-0 (8%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.98%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5.6% likelihood.
