Off the back of cup triumphs in their most recent outings, Kasimpasa and Hatayspor lock horns in round 20 of the Turkish Super Lig on Saturday.
Both teams are also looking to record back to back league victories and kick off the new year as well as the second half of the campaign on a positive note.
Match preview
Hatayspor narrowly edged past Menemenspor in a 1-0 victory on December 28 to book their place in the last 16 of this year's Turkiye Kupasi.
Dylan Saint-Louis opened the scoring four minutes into the second half and that was enough to get the job done for Omer Erdogan's men at the New Hatay Stadium.
The Star of the South are fifth in the league table as things stand, outside the last European place only on goal difference midway through the campaign.
Lying in store next is an opportunity to record a first ever triumph against an opposing side with two wins from the previous three meetings between the teams.
Only league leaders Trabzonspor have recorded more points away from home than Saturday's visitors, who go in search of a sixth victory on the road.
Kasimpasa came out on top in a 5-3 thriller against Kocaelispor two Tuesdays ago to secure safe passage into the Turkish Cup's round of 16.
After a frenetic first 90 minutes which ended 2-2, the tie headed into extra time, where strikes from Tarkan Serbest and Yusuf Erdogan either side of an Alpay Celebi own goal decided the bout.
Having picked up 15 points from 19 games so far, Cihat Arslan's men currently find themselves in the drop zone, three points adrift of safety but with plenty of time to turn things around.
A victory this weekend would be a step in the right direction and Saturday's hosts will be keen to come away with all three points this weekend.
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Team News
Kasimpasa's Jeffrey Bruma is ruled out with a foot injury, which has seen him sit out each of his side's last four outings.
Nabil Dirar is currently sidelined with an ankle injury, while Loret Sadiku continues to nurse a knee problem.
Mehdi Boudjemaa and Burak Camoglu remain on Hatayspor's treatment table due to muscle injuries and are the visitors' only absentees for the game.
Twenty-four-year-old Mohammed Kamara grabbed the clincher in a 4-1 win for his side in last season's edition of this fixture, and he will be looking to come up trumps once again.
Kasimpasa possible starting lineup:
Taskiran; Elmali, Brecka, Donk, Yildirim; Engin, Haspolat, Hahradinovic; Bozok, Eysseric, Ben Quanes
Hatayspor possible starting lineup:
Munir, Falette, Oksuz, Sackey, Popov; Ergun, Ribeiro, Lobjanidze; Bas, Diouf, El Kaabi
We say: Kasimpasa 1-2 Hatayspor
Despite the wide margin between the teams in the league table, this promises to be an enthralling affair with both sides gunning for all three points. We back the visitors to get the job done come the full-time whistle in this one.
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 Kasimpasa win with a probability of 46.29%. A win for Hatayspor had a probability of 27.88% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Kasimpasa win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.18%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.17%) and 2-0 (8.35%). The likeliest Hatayspor win was 0-1 (8.23%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.28%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 4.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Kasimpasa would win this match.
