Preview: Besiktas vs. Club Brugge

Club Brugge can book their place in the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday when they take a 2-1 first-leg lead to Besiktas in the last 16.

The Belgians came from behind to win on home turf last week as second-half goals from Tom de Sutter and Lior Refaelov gave them a slim advantage heading to Turkey.

Michel Preud'homme's side are yet to be beaten in this season's tournament, winning 10 and drawing three of their previous 13 matches.

Brugge are also enjoying a strong domestic campaign as they sit four points ahead of second-placed Gent in the Belgian Pro League table. Overall, they have won seven of their last nine games in all competitions.

Besiktas, who will be playing on the 112th anniversary of the club's foundation, have struggled for form in recent weeks, winning just three of their last seven games.

Despite going unbeaten in the group stage and knocking out Liverpool on penalties in the last 32, manager Slaven Bilic will know that his players will have to be at their best if they want to get past Brugge and make it through to the quarter-finals.

However, they are top in the Super Lig table and have won two and drawn one of their three previous encounters with Belgian sides at home. Their confidence will have also been boosted by a 5-1 hammering of Kayseri Erciyesspor in the league on the weekend.

Sander Coopman, Bjorn Engels and Victor Vazquez are all out injured for the visitors, who have an otherwise fully-fit squad to chose from.

Besiktas have a far worse list of absentees as Atiba Hutchinson, Ismail Koybasi, Alexander Milosevic and Jose Sosa are sidelined, while Cenk Tosun and Tolga Zengin could also miss out.

Besiktas:

Form in Europa League: WDWLWL Form in all competitions: LWDWLW

Possible starting lineup: Gonen; Kurtulus, Uysal, Gulum, Opare; Ozyakup, Kavlak, Arslan; Tore, Ba, Sahan

Brugge:

Form in Europa League: WDWWWW Form in all competitions: LWWWWW

Possible starting lineup: Ryan; Meunier, Duarte, Mechele, De Bock; Simons, De Fauw; Refaelov, Vormer, Bolingoli Mbombo; De Sutter

Sports Mole says: 1-1