With 11 games left to play this season, Caykur Rizespor and Giresunspor both find themselves at risk of relegation ahead of their Super Lig contest on Saturday.
The hosts, who sit in 19th place, are currently four points adrift of safety, while Giresunspor reside in 16th position with two points separating them from the drop zone.
Match preview
Caykur Rizespor enter the contest off the back of consecutive defeats, which has extended their winless run to five matches.
After losing at home against Istanbul Basaksehir, Caykur Rizespor travelled to the Nef Stadium last weekend for a league contest against Galatasaray.
Gedson Fernandes scored against his former club to give Caykur Rizespor an early lead, but the hosts restored parity just before the break thanks to Patrick Van Aanholt's equaliser.
The visitors hit the front once again after the interval, but Ryan Babel levelled for the hosts before Van Aanholt grabbed his second to give Galatasaray the lead, while Bafetimbi Gomis struck in stoppage time to consign Caykur Rizespor to a 5-2 defeat.
With 20 of their 23 points coming from home matches this season, Caykur Rizespor know that their remaining home games will play a key role in their hopes of survival.
The visitors, meanwhile, ended a six-game winless run last weekend as they cruised past Goztepe to boost their chances of beating the drop.
Umut Nayir opened the scoring, while goals from Alexis Perez and Muhammed Gumuskaya gave Caykur Rizespor a three-goal cushion, before Franco Di Santo grabbed a consolation for Goztepe.
That 3-1 victory represented Giresunspor's second victory of 2022, but there may not be much hope of another win on Saturday, with their previous seven away games in all competitions yielding just one victory.
In fact, the visitors enter Saturday's contest off the back of a three-game winless away run, which will need to be ended soon if Giresunspor are to move away from danger.
Ahead of the weekend fixture, Keles will remind his side of the 2-0 victory that they picked up over Caykur Rizespor in the reverse fixture back in October.
- W
- D
- L
- D
- L
- L
- D
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
Team News
The hosts are without Cemali Sertel and Aminu Umar, who are both expected to miss out due to injury issues.
Baiano Fabricio will serve a one-match suspension after receiving a red card last weekend, which could see Sebastian Holmen move over to right-back.
With Holmen changing position, Selim Ay is expected to come into the backline to partner Ponck in the centre of defence.
As for the visitors, injury issues rule Zeki Yavru and Arda Kilic out of Saturday's contest.
Following last weekend's victory, changes are expected to be kept to a minimum, although Hamidou Traore could come into the starting lineup.
After scoring his third league goal of the season against Goztepe, Nayir will lead the line once again for the visitors.
Caykur Rizespor possible starting lineup:
Cetin; Holmen, Ay, Ponck, Albayrak; Fernandes, Phiri; Sari, Boldrin, Boyd; Pohjanpalo
Giresunspor possible starting lineup:
Kocuk; Yavru, Diarra, Perez, Behich; Sergio, Diabate, Flavio, Chiquinho, Gumuskaya; Nayir
We say: Caykur Rizespor 2-1 Giresunspor
With points on the road proving to be few and far between, Caykur Rizespor will recognise the importance of Saturday's home contest, and we think that they will inflict a third consecutive away defeat upon their visitors on Saturday.
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 Caykur Rizespor win with a probability of 44.02%. A win for Giresunspor had a probability of 29.65% and a draw had a probability of 26.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Caykur Rizespor win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.15%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.93%) and 2-0 (7.96%). The likeliest Giresunspor win was 0-1 (8.77%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.51%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7% likelihood.
