Wednesday's round of fixtures in the Turkish Super Lig brings together two of the top four, as second-placed Konyaspor travel to fourth-placed Hatayspor with four points separating these sides.
The visitors are in better form than their hosts, with Konyaspor currently on a four-game unbeaten run, while Hatayspor have only won once in their last five games across all competitions.
Match preview
Hatayspor need to bounce back on Wednesday after a 2-0 defeat against the league leaders Trabzonspor last weekend means that fifth-placed Fenerbahce are now within a point of fourth spot.
Omer Erdogan's side struggled to get a foothold in that game as they were bombarded with shots from the table toppers; however, no team that has visited the Medical Park Stadyumu in Trabzon has managed to take all three points away with them.
Hatayspor last played on home soil at the beginning of this month, and Istanbul Basaksehir ended their three-game winning run at the Yeni Hatay Stadyumu, which they will want to get back to starting with victory on Wednesday.
After scoring at least once in the first 11 games this season no matter the result, the goals have dried up for Hatayspor in recent weeks, failing to find the back of the net in four of their last six Super Lig outings.
Konyaspor will provide a difficult test for the home team, having only lost once in their last nine games in all competitions, and they collected another three points last time out with a 1-0 win against Antalyaspor.
That match looked to be heading for a goalless draw, but Endri Cekici found late winner in the 93rd minute, which kept Konyaspor in a Champions League spot and four points clear of third and fourth.
Ilhan Palut's side will be looking to improve their away record on Wednesday, having collected almost less than half the amount of points on their travels as they have on home soil, where they remain unbeaten this season.
At the beginning of this campaign, Konyaspor went through a period where they drew five out of six games in the Super Lig, but they have now been able to turn those one pointers into three points and that has been a major help to climbing into the top two.
Trabzonspor had looked to run away with the Super Lig title already, but after the league leaders tasted defeat for the first time this season two weeks ago, Konyaspor are now nine points behind first spot and if they keep winning then the pressure may begin to influence Trabzonspor.
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Team News
Hatayspor midfielder Mehdi Boudjemaa has not featured since the end of November and he will continue to be absent from the home side as he is not expected to recover from his injury until next month.
Burak Camoglu was forced off after just 31 minutes in his first start of the season in the league last time out, with Kamil Corekci expected to come back into the starting lineup in the right wing-back role.
Mama Biram Diouf will continue to lead the line for Hatayspor, looking to add to his seven goals in the league this campaign, while Ayoub El Kaabi could come back into the starting 11.
Konyaspor central midfielder Ogulcan Ulgun will be absent from the visitors' squad after picking up a muscle injury, but Konyaspor could name an unchanged lineup on Wednesday as they have done for their last two outings.
Sokol Cikalleshi will be the sole striker for Konyaspor, while Serdar Gurler and Zymer Bytyqi provide the width, with 10 goals between them this season they offer a big threat to Hatayspor.
Hatayspor possible starting lineup:
Munir; Falette, Oksuz, Kurucuk; Adekugbe, Ribeiro, Sackey, Corekci; Kaabi, Saint-Louis; Diouf
Konyaspor possible starting lineup:
Sehic; Guilherme, Bardakci, Calik, Skubic; Bytyqi, Dikmen, Hadziahmetovic, Gurler; Rahmanovic; Cikalleshi
We say: Hatayspor 1-2 Konyaspor
Konyaspor should look to use their better form to their advantage on Wednesday and three points will be a big step to pulling away from Hatayspor in the race for a top-two finish.
Hatayspor will be knocked after defeat last time out, but perhaps even more so by their 3-0 defeat against Istanbul Basaksehir last time at home and that may influence the result of this game in the favour of the visitors.
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 Hatayspor win with a probability of 45.57%. A win for Konyaspor had a probability of 29.71% and a draw had a probability of 24.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Hatayspor win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.42%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.26%) and 2-0 (7.49%). The likeliest Konyaspor win was 0-1 (7.33%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.64%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 3% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted that Konyaspor would win this match.
