Süper Lig, Saturday, 18/03/2023
60, 51 and 46? In terms of championship betting in the Süper Lig, we are not exactly getting a close head-to-head race at the moment. Besiktas is the third strongest force, has big gap to the very top.
On Saturday, the Black Eagles are under pressure to secure third place. They are heavily favoured by Betano at home against a promoted team. Read my Besiktas Istanbulspor tip to find out why I think three goals will be the end of the road!
It’s a bit of a disappointment for Besiktas that they will probably have nothing to do with the 2023 title. They are 14 points off the top, five points, but with one game more, off second place.
The top priority therefore seems to be securing third place. After five wins in a row, things went a bit downhill again before the enforced break, with one point from the last two games the Eagles had to interrupt.
After all, the break was used to work on recent weaknesses. While the 2-1 win against Ankaragücü was only close and quite fortunate, Besiktas were really convincing all along the line in the 2-0 win against Basaksehir.
Now, another home match is just around the corner, which is something that Besiktas really enjoys. The only time they have lost at home was in mid-September, with a 1-0 defeat against Basaksehir.
The team currently has four home wins in a row, with number five to follow on Saturday. Since the end of August, however, there have only been two home victories by a margin of more than one goal.
So it’s a close-run thing, but our bookmakers are really optimistic. The average odds for the weekend are 1.25 to 11.0 in the David against Goliath category.
In the first half of the season, the fans will remember that they did not win against Istanbulspor. The favourites had taken the lead twice, but fluffed twice on standards.
A penalty and a direct free kick shortly before the end, Istanbulspor took advantage of two dead balls. Can they do the same this time, as sceptical as our bookmakers are?
As expected, the promoted team is in the middle of the relegation battle. Only due to the better goal difference do they stay above the line, but they also have one more match to play.
13 defeats, which is the weakest value of this statistic together with Kasimpasa and Ümraniyespor. There had been four narrow victories before the calendar flipped to February.
All of a sudden, the first three goals came in a double. First a 1:0 against Konyaspor, then a 2:1 against Alanyaspor. When the forced break due to the earthquake came immediately afterwards, the club was almost sad about it.
The run came to an abrupt halt. Istanbul then returned to action last Monday and lo and behold, with a great 3-0 win over Sivasspor, the kickers played even better than before the interruption!
Three wins in a row, the team has really never been so stable. They conceded one goal, which is also great. But there is also the fact that Istanbulspor doesn’t like to play against top clubs.
Only once did they score against a team from the top seven: In the first leg, in the aforementioned 2-2 draw against Besiktas! The downer in terms of personnel bears the name of Okan Erdogan, as he has to watch out with a yellow suspension.
Besiktas are condemned to win in order to secure third place. The black eagles probably won’t be able to take the lead anymore, but the strong statistics in their own stadium should continue.
For many weeks now, the results have been less than 3.5 goals, partly because Besiktas have been convincing defensively. Istanbulspor, the glaring underdog, is a little underestimated in my eyes, some assume a clear defeat.
After three victories with only one goal conceded in total, I definitely believe that the guests can already draw attention to themselves at Vodafone Park. So, as I can imagine a tough battle with both defences standing well, my tip is:
We see less than 3.5 goals!
