Two sides with an outside chance of taking the European spots go head to head in round 29 of the Turkish Super Lig as Istanbul Basaksehir welcome Antalyaspor to Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium on Saturday evening.
The home side will go into this match with 39 points after 28 league games, while the away team are on 38 points after a similar number of games.
Match preview
Istanbul Basaksehir made it two league wins in a row after picking up a 1-0 victory over ten-man Samsunspor courtesy of Danijel Aleksic's 47th-minute goal.
The Grey Owls had to deal with back-to-back defeats to Galatasaray and Kayserispor after recording consecutive league wins from late January to early February.
However, they got back on track with a win over Gaziantep before crashing out of the Turkish Cup against Trabzonspor.
The win over Samsunspor saw Cagdas Atan's side climb to sixth place in the Super Lig table, while they also reduced the points between them and the teams occupying the final two European spots to seven.
Having finished in fifth place last season, Basaksehir are on course to replicate that in this campaign, while they also have an outside chance of breaking into the top four.
The Grey Owls, who have been alternating between wins and defeats in their last five home games, will be looking to pick up back to back home wins for just the second time this season when they face Antalyaspor on Saturday.
Atan's men will be buoyed by the fact they have a good home record against the Scorpions, winning nine times, while losing just three and drawing six of 18 encounters between them at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium.
Meanwhile, Antalyaspor finally snapped their run of six consecutive games without a win, as they picked up a 1-0 victory over Gaziantep courtesy of Sam Larsson's 40th-minute strike.
This result saw Sergen Yalcin's men climb to eighth place in the table, level on points with ninth-placed Sivasspor and eight points off top four with 10 games left to play.
Any finish above 13th place will mean the Scorpions have performed better than they did last season, and this will be their aim as the season hits the home stretch.
Antalyaspor have not lost in their last two competitive meetings with Basaksehir, but both matches were on home soil, as they lost their last away game against the Grey Owls.
- W
- L
- W
- L
- L
- W
