With a third consecutive league triumph on the cards, Istanbul Basaksehir play host to Adana Demirspor at the Fatih Terim Stadium on Monday.
On the other hand, the away side will look to pick up a first league victory in three games following their cup success last time out.
Match preview
Basaksehir recorded back to back league wins for the first time this season following a 2-1 victory over Antalyaspor at the Antalya Stadium on Sunday.
Emre Belozoglu's men raced to a two-goal lead courtesy of Berkay Ozcan's brace and held on for all three points despite Houssam Ghacha's late consolation strike.
Having picked up 12 points from 10 outings this term, the Orange-Navy Blues are 14th on the log but are only a point off the top half.
Awaiting the capital outfit next is a clash versus an opposing side who have lost three of the last four meetings, managing just one draw in that time.
While their start to the new campaign has been far from ideal, Monday's hosts seem to have rediscovered their Midas touch of late and will be keen to emerge victorious in this one.
Adana Demirspor stretched their unbeaten record on the road to three games as they played out a 1-1 draw versus Sivasspor at the Sivas Stadium on Sunday.
After going behind to Max Gradel's seventh-minute strike, Vincenzo Montella's men restored parity in the final knockings of the game thanks to a Mario Balotelli penalty.
As a result, the Blue Lightnings are in 10th place at the moment, one point above their next opponents ahead of the clash in Istanbul.
Off the back of a convincing 3-0 victory in the Turkish Cup on Thursday, Monday's visitors will be looking to use that as a springboard for a solid display in this one.
- W
- L
- W
- L
- W
- W
- L
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- L
- D
- D
- W
- W
- L
- D
- W
Team News
Berkay Ozcan opened his account for the season last time out and the 23-year-old heads into the clash with the wind in his sails.
Veteran defender Alexandru Epureanu was on target in the last edition of this fixture, and he will be looking to come up trumps once again.
With five goals in his last six outings for the away side, Italian forward Mario Balotelli is certainly one to keep an eye on.
Despite scoring twice in midweek, Britt Assombalonga is expected to drop back to the bench for this one in favour of Birkir Bjanarson.
Istanbul Basaksehir possible starting lineup:
Babacan; Lima, Epureanu, Ndayishimiye, Caicara; Tekdemir, Ozcan, Cigerci; Turuc, Okaka, Visca
Adana Demirspor possible starting lineup:
Kaplan; Rassoul, Deli, Akaydin, Svensson; Stambouli, Kurt; Vargas, Bjanarson, Akgun; Balotelli
We say: Istanbul Basaksehir 2-1 Adana Demirspor
Basaksehir are the more in-form side coming into the game and the added advantage of playing on home turf makes them the favourites to emerge victorious. We are backing them to get the job done, albeit by only a narrow margin.
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 Istanbul Basaksehir win with a probability of 49.08%. A win for Adana Demirspor had a probability of 26.92% and a draw had a probability of 24%.
The most likely scoreline for a Istanbul Basaksehir win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.54%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.45%) and 2-0 (8%). The likeliest Adana Demirspor win was 1-2 (6.72%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.26%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 2-1 win for Istanbul Basaksehir in this match.
