Both aiming to make it back-to-back wins to start the Turkish Super Lig season, Konyaspor and Galatasaray will square off at the Medas Konya Buyuksehir Stadyumu on Friday.
The hosts kicked off their campaign with a victory away with Kasimpasa, while their visitors began their title defence by scraping past Hatayspor last Friday.
Match preview
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Konyaspor return to action on Friday looking to make it six points from their first two outings of the 2024-25 Turkish Super Lig season, after narrowly avoiding relegation in a particularly tricky campaign last time around.
In the 2023-24 term, the Anadolu Kartali finished 16th in Turkey's top flight, just one point and one place above the relegation zone having jumped out with two games left to play thanks to a 3-0 victory over Samsunspor courtesy of goals from Steven Nzonzi, Guilherme and Sokol Cikalleshi.
Although the season ended with a draw against Kayserispor and a final-day 3-1 home defeat to Galatasaray in the teams' last meeting, Ali Camdali's side had done enough to steer clear of the bottom four in his first month at the helm, before he guided them into a first full campaign on the back of a pleasing pre-season run which produced two victories, two draws and a solitary defeat to Udinese.
With the hopes of a more comfortable mid-table finish, their new top-flight campaign then began with a trip to Kasimpasa on Saturday, and after going ahead through Pedrinho, they trailed 2-1 heading into the final 10 minutes following goals from Nuno Da Costa and Claudio Winck, only to draw back level through Danijel Aleksic before Umut Nayir netted a winner in the dying embers.
With spirits bound to be high after their opening-day turnaround and three-point haul, Konyaspor now head into a tougher test on Friday aiming to build on that result with another impressive victory to build a strong start to their season.
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That will be no easy task, though, as the visitors also arrive in search of back-to-back victories following a historic top-flight triumph last time around.
Galatasaray headed into the 2024-25 Turkish Super Lig campaign with the aim of winning a third consecutive title and the 25th in their history, having retained the crown by winning the league with a record tally of 102 points from their 38 outings in the 2023-24 term.
From those games, the Sari-Kirmizililar only suffered two defeats alongside 33 victories, including their 3-1 triumph in the final-day trip to Konyaspor in late May to get over the line as Mauro Icardi netted a brace and Berkan Kutlu added a third.
Then following a mixed pre-season run and a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Istanbul rivals Besiktas in the Turkish Super Cup at the beginning of August, Okan Buruk's side kicked off their league campaign at home to Hatayspor on Friday and looked set to fall to another defeat, trailing 1-0 heading into the final 10 minutes, but Icardi produced a leveller from the penalty spot before Michy Batshuayi snatched all three points with a 90th-minute winner.
While their first two competitive outings of the season may be slight cause for concern, Galatasaray do head into Friday's trip having opened their Super Lig defence with a victory, and they will aim to make it six points from two games with a more convincing victory on Friday.
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Konyaspor should field a similar starting XI to their opening-day victory over Kasimpasa for Friday's contest, with summer signing Josip Calusic remaining sidelined by injury while Nikola Boranijasevic is also not yet ready to feature after joining from FC Zurich.
Danijel Aleksic does have a claim to come in from the outset, after netting their leveller off the bench last time out, with Pedrinho bound to be deployed in an attacking midfield role again after opening the scoring in that game.
Umut Nayir will continue to lead the line, having marked his competitive Konyaspor debut with the winning goal last Saturday, while Ufuk Akyol and Marko Jevtovic will be relied upon to play a key role in front of the defence in what promises to be a tough test.
Galatasaray head into Friday's contest without defender Davinson Sanchez, who suffered an injury after featuring in their season-opener, meaning Victor Nelsson will come in to join Abdulkerim Bardakci at the heart of a back four.
Elsewhere, Lucas Torreira and Kerem Demirbay will hope to fight off competition from summer arrival Gabriel Sara to continue their partnership at the base of the midfield, while Wilfried Zaha has returned to contention and will fight alongside Kerem Akturkoglu to come in from the outset on the wing after Hakim Ziyech and Baris Alper Yilmaz were preferred last time out.
Michy Batshuayi, who joined in the summer after spells with Besiktas and Fenerbahce, laid a claim to feature in attack from the outset by scoring their winner off the bench against Hatayspor, while Mauro Icardi is bound to again lead the line having opened his account for the season in that game after notching up 32 goals and 12 assists in 47 appearances across all competitions for the Istanbul giants last term.
Konyaspor possible starting lineup:
Slowik; Yazgili, Damjanovic, Demirbag, Guilherme; Jevtovic, Aykol; Aleksic, Pedrinho, Erdogan; Nayir
Galatasaray possible starting lineup:
Muslera; Dubois, Nelsson, Bardakci, Kohn; Torreira, Demirbay; Ziyech, Mertens, Akturkoglu; Icardi
We say: Konyaspor 1-2 Galatasaray
Following an eye-catching campaign last time around, Galatasaray are yet to get going this term, and after a heavy defeat to Besiktas and a close call at home to Hatayspor, they should again find it tough in a tough trip on Friday.
We do see Buruk's side having enough quality in their ranks, particularly in attack, to get over the line, so we are backing them to leave with all three points.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Sam Varley
