On the 18th of December, İstanbul Başakşehir will travel to İstanbul to battle Galatasaray in a clash of these two closely matched Super Lig teams in the ever popular İstanbul derby. Weather on match day is looking like a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 5 degrees, so hopefuly the match makes up for the weather. In their last match, 9th placed Galatasaray, recorded a 0-1 loss against Sivasspor. Fayçal Fajr struck first for Sivasspor in the 80th minute on a feed from Mustapha Yatabare, and with that single goal the scoring was complete. Neither team could manage anything else In the end, Galatasaray was frustrated by Sivasspor’s defence and couldn’t put any tallies on the board. Sivasspor ended the match with the shutout victory. Galatasaray is looking for direction having 4 win and 3 losses in their last 10 matches, while in their last match, 4th placed İstanbul Başakşehir, recorded a 2-1 win against Kasımpaşa. Edin Višća scored the first goal for İstanbul Başakşehir in the 53rd minute, then Haris Hajradinović got the equalizer for Kasımpaşa in the 78th minute on a feed from Florent Hadergjonaj. İstanbul Başakşehir is on a hot streak lately, having won 8 of their last 10.
These two teams have not yet played each other this season, so it will be interesting how the match turns out. Last season Galatasaray won the head to head battle with 2 wins.
İstanbul Başakşehir is lucky enough to have a few offensive weapons, with Stefano Okaka and Danijel Aleksić each having 2 goals in their last 5. Galatasaray is having problems scoring lately. Their top scorers, Ryan Babel and Sofiane Feghouli each only have 1 goal in their last five
Fernando Muslera and Omar Elabdellaoui are unavailable to play for Fatih Terim’s team, while Erdinç Sözer’s İstanbul Başakşehir squad will be without Arda Turan.