Yeni Malatyaspor will face Sivasspor on Tuesday in the Super Lig, looking to add to the six points they have collected in their first five league games this season.
Sivasspor are three points worse off than their opponents and the away side are still searching for their first win of the campaign.
Match preview
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Yeni Malatyaspor are looking to improve on their 15th-placed finish last season, and they have won two games in the Super Lig this term, although they have lost their last two fixtures.
Their last outing was full of excitement as they suffered a 4-3 defeat to Fatih Karagumruk, despite taking a 3-2 lead thanks to goals by Benjamin Tetteh, Mustafa Eskihellac and Mounir Chouiar, but their opponents scored in the 76th and 88th minutes to snatch all three points and inflict a second successive defeat on Yeni Malatyaspor.
The home side will know they need to improve defensively if they are to win on Tuesday, after conceding a whopping 12 goals so far this season and in their last two Super Lig fixtures they have seen the ball hit the back of their net on seven occasions.
Yeni Malatyaspor have relied on Tetteh and Adem Buyuk to grab the goals with the duo scoring two and three goals respectively, which means the pair have notched five of the seven goals their side have scored this campaign.
The hosts have only lost one of their last six competitive home encounters with Tuesday's opponents, and last season they played out a 2-2 draw at the New Malatya Stadium.
Sivasspor have had a slow start to the season having only collected three points, with all of those coming in their last three fixtures courtesy of consecutive draws and, as a result, they are currently in the relegation zone.
If they are to replicate last season's fifth-placed finish, then they need to start picking up victories soon, as they are four points worse off than they were at the same stage last season.
The hosts are unbeaten in their last three encounters thanks to the successive draws but will need to turn those single points into three to advance up the table and move away from the relegation zone.
Sivasspor can take confidence from their last meeting with Tuesday's opponents, which they won at home 1-0 courtesy of a late winner from Jorge Felix.
Max Gradel and Mustapha Yatabare scored a combined 21 goals for Sivasspor in the Super Lig last season, but they have only managed a single goal between them this season, which Yatabare bagged at the weekend, so they will be hoping those two can start finding the net once again this campaign.
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Team News
Yeni Malatyaspor have injury absentees in the form of Rahman Cagiran, Ertac Ozbir and Karim Hafez.
The hosts will be without Jospin Nshimirimana who was sent off at the weekend after collecting two yellow cards, so he will miss this contest through suspension.
Irfan Buz could bring Semih Kaya back into the starting lineup to replace the suspended Nshimirimana.
Sivasspor are without Aaron Appidangoye and Leke James who are both still injured.
Olarenwaju Kayode is serving the final game of a three-match suspension so will not be involved.
Sivasspor head coach Riza Calimbay may opt to name a similar lineup to the one that played at the weekend.
Yeni Malatyaspor possible starting lineup:
Damlu; Kaya, Ciftpinar, Wallace; Eskihellac, Aabid, Ndong, Chouiar, Haddadi; Tetteh, Buyuk
Sivasspor possible starting lineup:
Yildirim; Oguz, Goutas, Osmanpasa, Ciftci; Arslan, Cofie, Fajr; Henrique, Gradel, Yatabare
We say: Yeni Malatyaspor 1-2 Sivasspor
Although Sivasspor still have not won this season, three successive draws will build some confidence and facing a leaky Yeni Malatyaspor defence might provide the away side with an opportunity to collect all three points for the first time this campaign.
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 Sivasspor win with a probability of 40.78%. A win for Yeni Malatyaspor had a probability of 34.1% and a draw had a probability of 25.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sivasspor win was 0-1 with a probability of 8.86%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.77%) and 0-2 (6.57%). The likeliest Yeni Malatyaspor win was 1-0 (7.98%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.82%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 8.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Sivasspor in this match.
