Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce Predictions

Both Galatasaray and Fenerbahce were beaten in the Super Lig on Sunday, and Istanbul Basaksehir took full advantage to move top of the table by two clear points. Friday’s hosts Galatasaray remain in the hunt for the title in third place, two points behind the new league leaders, but Fenerbahce are enduring a terrible start to the season and find themselves sitting one place above the relegation zone with just nine points earned from their opening ten matches.

Galatasaray created just as many chances to score as their hosts last weekend and had 55% of the overall possession, but that didn’t stop the title chasers from going down 2-0 away at Yeni Malatyaspor. The hosts took the lead through Dutch midfielder Donald in the thirty-fifth minute, and that goal proved enough to separate the two clubs at the half time interval.

Galatasaray threatened to score the next goal and bring themselves back onto level terms, but following some big missed chances by the visitors Yeni scored their second goal of the match from the penalty spot through Büyük to move two goals in front. Galatasaray couldn’t find a way back into the match no matter how hard they tried, as things simply weren’t clicking for the forward players in the final third.

With four goal in the league this season, Swiss international Derdiyok top scores for Galatasaray, but at this stage of the campaign they would have hoped for their main striker to be on nearer double that total. Former Swansea and West Ham midfielder Ayew top scores for struggling Fenerbahce so far this season with just two goals to his name and that makes him the clubs only player to have scored more than one league goal in the opening ten games of the campaign.

Ankaragücü went 3-0 up away at Fenerbahce last weekend, taking the lead in the thirty-fifth minute through Faty. Two goals in the space of three second half minutes saw the visitors increase their advantage, first through a Özgenç penalty and then El Kabir got in on the action.

Frey pulled a goal back for the hosts in the eighty-ninth minute, but by that point the game was already over. Fenerbahce might have seen more of the ball, but they didn’t play like a team last weekend and losing striker Slimani to a red card in the second half means the Algerian will now miss the derby game against Galatasaray.

We’re confident that this game will feature under 2.5 goals, and have backed the match to end in a 0-0 draw. All of the last six meetings between the two clubs have featured under 2.5 goals. Under 2.5 goals have been produced in each of Galatasaray’s last six matches, while Under 2.5 goals have were scored in three of Fenerbahce’s last six matches. This game has a tradition of being tight and tense over recent years, and even though Fenerbahce are struggling this season we expect the game to be close.