Sports Mole previews Saturday’s Turkish Super Lig clash between Fenerbahce and Konyaspor, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Fenerbahce host Konyaspor as the Turkish top flight resumes on Saturday with a meeting between two teams that have endured post-World Cup slumps.
Title-chasing Fener drew 1-1 with Adana Demirspor in their last competitive outing back at the start of February while Konyaspor lost 1-0 at home to Istanbulspor on the same Thursday.
Match preview
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Under the stewardship of serial winner Jorge Jesus since the summer, Fenerbahce have just about been able to keep pace with the merciless winning juggernaut of Galatasaray.
Fener went into the World Cup hiatus top of the league, sitting two points clear of Gala and averaging almost three goals per game.
However, between the end of the World Cup and the enforced three-week hiatus caused by the devastating earthquakes in the area, Fenerbahce have fallen nine points behind Galatasaray and into second place.
Jesus’s side remain the Super Lig‘s leading scorers, with Ecuador captain Enner Valencia boasting an outrageous 20 all on his own; Konyaspor’s entire squad have scored 24 league goals combined this season.
One of the few games Valencia failed to score in was the reverse fixture against Konyaspor back in August when the striker was sent off in the first half for grazing Adil Demirbag‘s groin with his studs – incidentally, Konyaspor’s centre-back was shown a red card of his own before his teammate Muhammet Demir scored the only goal of the game.
Fenerbahce have lost four of the last six meetings with Konyaspor after exerting utter dominance in this fixture since their upcoming visitors were first promoted in 1988.
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Konyaspor have not won a league game since November, and are the only team in the Turkish top flight yet to claim a victory after the World Cup.
Aleksandar Stanojevic was parachuted in to take the place of Ilhan Palut in January but has failed to elicit any whisper of a positive turnaround, losing all four of his games in charge thus far.
Despite the team’s desperate lack of form, Konyaspor can still boast the joint-third best defensive record in the Turkish top flight, allowing 22 goals in 21 games.
Wins may not be as forthcoming as they were before the international jamboree in Qatar, but Konyaspor rarely slump to defeat on the road – only league-leading Galatasaray have lost fewer away games than the visitors’ two.
Fenerbahce Turkish Super Lig form:
Fenerbahce form (all competitions):
Konyaspor Turkish Super Lig form:
Konyaspor form (all competitions):
Team News
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Jesus will be without the only Fener player aside from Valencia to have hit double digits in the league this season while Michy Batshuayi serves his suspension this weekend.
Miguel Crespo missed the club’s previous league outing for disciplinary reasons but is expected to be back in the squad for Konyaspor’s visit.
The former Cagliari stalwart Joao Pedro has had his first season outside of Italy since 2014 hampered by injury – which may continue to keep him out this Saturday.
Konyaspor’s Bruno Paz will not be part of the travelling party to Istanbul after collecting a suspension-inducing fourth yellow card of the season against Istanbulspor last time out.
Demir, the match-winner when these sides met at the start of the season, may well miss out on the chance of another decisive intervention as he nurses a shoulder injury which is expected to persist until March.
Fenerbahce possible starting lineup:
Bayindir; Kadioglu, Akaidin, Szalai, Lincoln; Arao; Rossi, Yandas, Kahveci; King, Valencia
Konyaspor possible starting lineup:
Sehic; Oguz, Demirbag, Calvo, Guilherme; Dikmen, Ulgun; Muric, Cekici, Michalak; Diouf
We say: Fenerbahce 3-1 Konyaspor
Fenerbahce and Konyaspor were only separated by one place in last season’s table – finishing second and third respectively – but they return to league action with five teams and 18 points between them.
Despite Konyaspor’s recent success in this fixture, we are backing Fenerbahce to underline the gap in the table on the turf this weekend.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
