The big Turkish derby between Besiktas and Fenerbache will undoubtedly fire up Istanbul. The fans of the two teams already began clashing all over the city, and the tension is about to hit the peak this Sunday afternoon once these two sides clash at Vodafone Arena, the home of the black and white Eagles. They are both in the upper part of the standings, a few points behind the first place, meaning that this event carries a very high competitive significance besides the usual rivalry.
Preview
Besiktas (+130) started the year well but didn’t win the past two events, one at home against Basaksehir 0-1, and on the road vs. Istanbulspor, 2-2. Previously, the Eagles have won three straight, four in five, with a draw in Alanya.
Their games are fun to watch, as Besiktas likes to play open and offensive football, which usually results in lots of goals. Five of seven games Valerien Ismail’s boys played were with three or more hits, and in the same games, we saw both teams netting. A very big strength of the unit is the diversified attack, with three players with three or more goals.
Since the campaign began, Besiktas won three events at home and lost the most recent one. The Eagles are very dangerous in front of their fans, and they sometimes play above possibilities, usually in big games.
Fenerbache (+162) suffered an early exit in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers but managed to reach the UEFA Europa League group stage. The Turkish vice-champions were expected to reach the playoffs at least, but they suffered elimination in the first appearance, which was against Dynamo Kyiv.
Fener played 14 competitive games this year, and has only two defeats. They are currently on a streak of four contests without a loss, winning three and posting one draw. Prior to that, they would win four in a row, and have seven straight without a failure.
Four of six road games Jorge Jesus’ crew had in the 2022/23 campaign were under 2.5 goals, and were pretty dull without too many chances.
Latest News
Dele Alli, Ghezzal, Gunok, and Hutchinson are all out for Besiktas, and we can say this is a significant blow for the hosts. Yet they had so many injuries this year, they already got used to it.
On the other side, the only unavailable player is Sangare, while Peres sits as questionable.
Head to Head Games
The last three events were all without winners. As for the efficiency, only two in the past 10 were with both teams netting, and six were with over 2.5 scores.
Prediction
Even though Fener likes to play a bit more conservative games on the road, we think that they won’t be able to do that at Vodafone Arena, because Besiktas forces the rivals to become more offensive and to open. The Eagles won’t take any calculations; they want to win and be sure that Ismael prepares a very aggressive and offensive-minded approach. Therefore we are going with over 2.5 goals, and the odds on that are -195 right now. If you want to boost them a bit, add both teams to score.
Pick: Over 2.5 goals -195
More previews are available:
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
Twitter:
Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
Leave a Reply