Preview: Altay vs. Hatayspor - prediction, team news, lineups

Fourth-placed Hatayspor travel to the New Hatay Stadium on Friday evening to take on Altay in Turkish Super Lig action.

The hosts currently sit 14th in the table but have secured a win and two draws in their last three games, whilst the visitors are on a very inconsistent run of form.

Match preview

Altay went into last weekend's match with Galatasaray likely low on confidence after collecting just two points from their previous seven league games.

This season's Gala are not the giants of old, however, and the 22-time champions are struggling to get themselves even into the European spots.

Their troubles continued as Altay took the lead after a quarter of an hour through Cesar Pinares, although the hosts were then able to turn the match around with a goal in each half.

Mustafa Denizli's men stuck at it, though, and their persistence paid off as they earned themselves a point via a Daouda Bamba penalty in the 86th minute.

They also progressed in the cup a few days earlier with a 4-2 win and can potentially build on this momentum, but will have to improve on their league form where they are without a win in eight games.

Hatayspor, on the other hand, cannot seem to find any consistent momentum, with the results of their last six games reading win, loss, win, loss, win, loss.

It would be easy to twist those statistics into simply three wins from their last six but the reality will be a worrying trend for Omer Erdogan.

The defeats have also tended to be heavy - the 4-0 loss against Sivasspor could be argued as Hatayspor's worst this season, and their most recent game ended in a 3-0 defeat at home to Istanbul Basaksehir.

Three goals in the first half meant the game was all but over by the interval and Erdogan will, in fact, now be desperate to see his side continue their bizarre win-loss pattern on Friday.

Team News

Altay's Eric Bjorkander is unavailable due to injury, but would not have been expected to start against Hatayspor anyway.

Zeki Yildirim and Cebrail Karayel are both suspended, with Ceyhun Gulselam likely to deputise for the former in midfield and Tolga Unlu for the latter at right-back.

Isaac Sackey and Muhammed Mert will start for Hatayspor as Adama Noss Traore is injured and Mehdi Boudjemaa has second-degree burns after an accident at home.

Onur Ergun and Sadik Bas amongst others are sidelined with injury, but nobody in the treatment room would have been expected to start.

Altay possible starting lineup:

Lis; Unlu, Akca, Thiam, Naderi; Gulselam, Poko, Pinares; Kappel, Rodriguez, Bamba

Hatayspor possible starting lineup:

Mohamedi; Adekugbe, Falette, Kurucuk, Corekci; Sackey; Kaabi, Mert, Ribeiro, Lobzhanidze; Diouf

We say: Altay 2-2 Hatayspor

Altay's aggressive play frustrated Galatasaray and the shock result will have given them some confidence ahead of this game. It did, however, mean they also gave away chances. We could see the same happening here and that resulting in a high-scoring draw.