Galatasaray and Hatayspor draw the curtain on round two of the new Super Lig season with their meeting at the Turk Telekom Stadium on Monday.
Last season's runners-up began the new campaign with an opening-day victory last time out, while their visitors had to make do with a point.
Match preview
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Galatasaray picked up where they left off last term by seeing off the threat of Giresunspor in a 2-0 triumph at the Cotanak Stadium on Monday.
Mbaye Diagne opened the scoring just past the half-hour mark after which he saw his spot kick saved, but Alexandru Cicaldau made no mistake from 12 yards to double the lead for Fatih Terim's men.
The Cimbom played out a 1-1 draw versus Danish side Randers in the first leg of their Europa League playoff, which concludes with next week's return leg.
For now, though, the Istanbul-based outfit will be looking to make it two league wins from as many games against a side who are accustomed to giving them a run for their money.
Monday's hosts have won just two of the last five meetings between the clubs, suffering two defeats in that time including a comprehensive 3-0 loss in the most recent encounter in April.
Following an impressive debut top-flight campaign last time out, Hatayspor kicked off the new season with a 1-1 stalemate versus Kasimpasa on Saturday at the Hatay New Stadium.
Murat Sonmez's men were behind going into the interval courtesy of Valentin Eysseric's opener, but they restored parity in the 72nd minute through Saba Lobjanidze.
The Star of the South are without a victory in any of their last seven Super Lig games on the road since a 3-1 win over BB Erzurumspor in February.
After missing out on a European spot by just four points in the 2019-20 campaign, Monday's visitors are not far off continental qualification, but their displays away from home must improve.
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Team News
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Defender Marcao is ineligible to participate this weekend after he was given his marching orders in the hosts' season-opener.
Galatasaray also have Omar Elabdellaoui unavailable due to a knee injury that limited the 29-year-old to just 17 appearances in all competitions last season.
Isaac Sackey is Hatayspor's only absentee for the game, as the Ghanaian is yet to recover from a foot injury as a result of which he sat out his side's opening fixture.
Saba Lobjanidze came off the bench to rescue a point for the visitors last time out, and he could be rewarded with a starting spot in this one.
Galatasaray possible starting lineup:
Muslera; Van Aanholt, Ozturk, Luyindama, Boey; Cicaldau, Antalyali, Kutlu; Feghouli, Akturkoglu, Diagne
Hatayspor possible starting lineup:
Munir; Adekugbe, Oksuz, Ergun, Corekci; Ribeiro, Boudjemaa, Colak; Kamara, Diouf, Saint-Louis
We say: Galatasaray 2-0 Hatayspor
With one eye on next week's European qualifier, Galatasaray may rest a number of key stars for this one. Nonetheless, we are backing them to emerge victorious at the end of the 90 minutes.
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 Galatasaray win with a probability of 65.4%. A draw had a probability of 18.9% and a win for Hatayspor had a probability of 15.66%.
The most likely scoreline for a Galatasaray win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.81%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.7%) and 1-0 (8.61%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.7%), while for a Hatayspor win it was 1-2 (4.4%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 2-1 win for Galatasaray in this match.
