Preview: Galatasaray vs. Gaziantep

Galatasaray will try to maintain their perfect start to the Turkish Super Lig season when they welcome Gaziantep to Rams Park on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the 13th-placed visitors will be looking to produce a positive response after suffering back-to-back defeats.

Match preview

© Imago

Galatasaray have made an impressive start to their bid to win a third consecutive league title, having taken maximum points from their opening four matches.

They kicked off the Turkish Super Lig campaign with 2-1 victories over Hatayspor and Konyaspor, before they produced a dominant display to thrash Adana Demispor 5-1 in their final outing before the international period.

The two-week break seemingly did little to affect Galatasaray’s momentum as they picked up from where left off to ease to a commanding 5-0 home win over Caykur Rizespor thanks to goals from Davidson Sanchez, Abdulkerim Bardakci, Gabriel Sara, Dries Mertens and Baris Yilmaz.

As a result of Saturday’s victory, the Turkish champions have now won 33 of their previous 35 home league matches (D1, L1), ensuring that they will head into Tuesday’s fixture as the overwhelming favourites to clinch maximum points.

Galatasaray have also won each of their last four matches against Gaziantep, including a narrow home victory in January when they came from behind to record a 2-1 win thanks to a Wilfried Zaha equaliser and Yilmaz’s 89th-minute winner.

Meanwhile, Gaziantep will head into Monday’s contest on the back of two poor results after they failed to build upon a 1-0 victory in their league opener against newly-promoted Bodrum.

They went on to lose 1-0 to Samsunspor in their opening home game, before they returned from the international period with a narrow defeat in their away meeting with Sivasspor.

Alexandru Maxim‘s penalty and a late Kenan Kodro effort could not stop Gaziantep from falling to a 3-2 defeat, ending a run of three consecutive away wins in the top flight.

Gaziantep did at least continue their scoring run on the road, having now found the net in each of their last seven away league matches.

The visitors will head on their travels for a difficult away trip against the reigning Turkish champions, and they will be dreaming of springing a surprise to beat Galatasaray for the first time since recording a home win in March 2022.

Galatasaray Turkish Super Lig form:

Galatasaray form (all competitions):

Gaziantep Turkish Super Lig form:

Team News

© Imago

Galatasaray striker Mauro Icardi missed Saturday’s win through injury and is expected to be sidelined for at least another two weeks.

Okan Buruk could be tempted to name an unchanged lineup which would see Ismail Jakobs and Napoli loanee Victor Osimhen retain their spots after making their Galatasaray debuts at the weekend.

Osimhen will hope to score his first goal for the club after his header on Saturday was awarded to Bardakci, who got a foot to the ball before it crossed the line.

Sanchez returned from injury to play over an hour against Caykur Rizespor, and he is set to continue in central defence alongside Bardakci.

As for the visitors, defender Godfrey Stephen is likely to be absent after he missed Saturday’s win over Sivasspor due to injury.

Bruno Viana, Christopher Lungoyi and David Okereke could all retain their places after making their Gaziantep debuts at the weekend.

Another summer addition Kodro scored his first goal on Saturday, and he will now look to score in a second straight game when he leads the line against Galatasaray.

Galatasaray possible starting lineup:
Muslera; Ayhan, Sanchez, Bardakci, Jakobs; Torreira, Sara; Yilmaz, Mertens, Akgun; Osimhen

We say: Galatasaray 3-1 Gaziantep

Galatasaray will be full of confidence after winning their opening four league games, and we think that they ultimately prove too strong for a Gaziantep side that may be low on confidence after losing back-to-back matches.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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