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STSL week 15: Beşiktaş – Galatasaray

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Updated: December 13, 2015

Spor Toto Süper Lig
Beşiktaş JK – Galatasaray SK
Location: Atatürk Olimpiyat stadium
Referee: Mete Kalkavan
Date: Monday, December 14th
Time: 20:00 (GMT+2)
Channel: LIG TV
Matchday 15

The Black Eagles host rivals Galatasaray on matchday 15 of the 2015-2016 Spor Toto Süper Lig season coming off their European elimination on Thursday.

Q17-kasimpasa

Ricardo Quaresma may hold the key to success in this match for the Black Eagles, the 32 year old Portuguese played a fantastic game against Sporting on Thursday, creating 3 clear cut goalscoring opportunities for his teammates.

The big question on everyone’s mind is whether or not Senol Günes will take the risk of starting Tolga Zengin in this important match following his abyssmal performance in the game versus Sporting CP, which cost the Black Eagles European qualification. But Günes doesn’t exactly have many alternatives, he only has Günay Güvenç to fall back on and the young goalkeeper doesn’t exactly have a lot of experience at the highest level, despite finishing last season as the Black Eagles’ starting goalkeeper, including have played both at the Sükrü Saraçoglu stadium against Fenerbahçe and at the Türk Telekom Arena against Galatasaray. Günay showed good footballing qualities in those 10 Süper Lig games he played last season, he showed good ability in one on one situations and proved to be a good shot stopper and quick with his feet but at the same time he also made several big errors like conceding directly from a corner against Konyaspor and not clearing shots he stopped very well, deflecting them back in to potential danger.

But with Tolga’s morale most probably being at an all time low and his tendency to crack under the pressure of big games, it may be the smartest bet for Senol Günes to start Günay ahead of Tolga.

There is also good news for Beşiktaş as both Gökhan Töre and Ersan Gülüm, who had been struggling with injuries the past few weeks, trained with the team again and should be ready to play on Monday.

Ersan in particual is back quicker than expected as he wasn’t projected to return until next week, after the derby. The Black Eagles have no players out due to suspension and only miss Veli Kavlak and Tolgay Arslan due to injuries, as they have been out all season so far.

Beşiktaş predicted XI:

Günay Güvenç (Tolga); Andreas Beck – Luiz Rhodolfo – Ersan Adem Gülüm – İsmail Köybaşı; Atiba Hutchinson – Oğuzhan Özyakup – José Sosa; Ricardo Quaresma – Gökhan Töre (Olcay) – Mario Gómez

Galatasaray have no suspensions either and are missing only Lionel Carole, Jason Denayer and Hamit Altintop due to injuries.

Galatasaray predicted XI:

Fernando Muslera; Sabri Sarioglu – Aurélien Chedjou – Hakan Balta – Olcan Adin; Selçuk Inan – Bilal Kisa – Wesley Sneijder; Lukas Podolski – Yasin Öztekin – Burak Yilmaz

Kaan Bayazit
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Kaan Bayazit

Editor-in-chief at Beşiktaş International
Freelance sports writer specialized in Turkish football and Beşiktaş. Co-host of the Black Eagles podcast. Frequently featured in World Soccer Digest Japan and many other international media outlets. Following Turkish football for close to two decades. Proud father to Aedin.
Kaan Bayazit
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