Akhisar Belediye vs Galatasaray Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Galatasaray get their season under way in Sunday’s Turkish Super Cup clash with Akhisar Belediye. The curtain raiser to the new season comes days before the start of the new Super Lig campaign, with Gala hoping to defend their title. However, they were made to sweat on their way to the top last season, and with a host of strong sides at the top in Turkey, they’re likely to face a stern challenge yet again. Can they at least kick off the new season with some silverware this weekend?

The Turkish champions haven’t made major waves in the transfer market, with the £2million signing of Yuto Nagatomo from Inter Milan their only transfer outlay. However, as the reigning champions they may feel that keeping their side together is the key thing, which is shown from the Nagatomo deal, as he joined on loan in January, making 15 league starts as he helped them to secure silverware. Will that squad be good enough to reach the top of Turkish football once again?

The underdogs are gearing up for a big season, with their place in the Europa League group stage already secure. They’ve got over a month before they kick off their European campaign, so first they’ll be out to build on last season’s surprise cup victory and look to cause problems for the champions yet again. They dumped Gala out at the semi-final stage of the Turkish Cup last season, before secure a surprise 3-2 win over Fenerbahce in the final. With that track record, they should cause problems in this game

Obviously the favourites have plenty of options going forward, including Bafetimbi Gomis who scored 29 league goals last term. They are widely expected to win, so we can’t see them failing to score on Sunday. However, Akhisar Belediye are likely to cause problems to the champions’ back-line, after scoring 1.4 goals per game away from home in the league last term.

They managed to score home and away to the top three sides in Turkey, and Akhisar Belediye should continue that fine form with a goal on Sunday. We’re backing both teams to score in this one, but we don’t see Gala slipping up. The cup winners lost home and away to Gala in the league last season, and the champions should make up for their loss in the cup earlier this year. Gala won the last encounter 2-1, and we’re backing a repeat of that score, while Galatasaray to win and BTTS is our main tip.