With four teams separated by merely three points in their battle for first place in the Turkish top flight, and with five games remaining, the fight for the Süper Lig trophy is set to go down to the final matchday.
One of the most interesting leagues hosted in FootballCoin contests, the Süper Lig remains one of the few European competitions to have not revealed its winner. Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the Premier League and Eredivisie have already crowned their champions. In La Liga, this remains merely a formality.
However, the Turkish top flight has four teams lined up to win the competition. With only a three-point distance between the number one and number four positions, there is a clear sense of excitement for what the outcome may be. Three of these have won the competition before, while the other is a relative newcomer. Today we take a look at their season so far and their chances of winning the trophy.
Galatasaray
They’re Turkey’s most decorated team, having won the competition on 20 occasions. They’re also the only Turkish to have won a major European competition, the UEFA Cup back in 2000.
Galatasaray sit top of the league with 60 points, only one ahead of second place. They boast the league’s best attack. The team likes to maintain possession and create many goal scoring opportunities. Their internationally diverse squad is known for putting on a good technical display, averaging almost 10 dribbles per game.
Former Lyon striker Bafétimbi Gomis is the team’s top performer, with Premier League transfer target Younès Belhanda a close second.
Galatasaray will benefit from a largely comfortable remaining fixture list, with the exception of playing hosts to rivals Besiktas, who are one point behind and currently in third place.
Istanbul Basaksehir
The new kids on the block, Istanbul Basaksehir were first promoted to top flight football in the 2007-08 season. Since then the club has steadily grown and they’ve enjoyed their best performance last year when they finished as Runners-Up.
With the team having enjoyed a great season that has seen them successfully take part in the Europa League, there is a growing sense of excitement from fans who believe the team has what it takes to earn their first ever trophy.
Fans of European football are likely to recognize many of the names in Basaksehir’s squad, with Arda Turan, Gaël Clichy and Emmanuel Adebayor currently playing for the club. This is also a testament to the club’s eye for business, with them managing to get their most famous players on either loan deals or free transfers.
The team has played good possession football that has showcased the talent of midfielders Edin Visca and Emre. This is displayed by their passing accuracy of 84.1%
Their recent 2-0 defeat to Galatasaray will have hurt the club’s morale, but their fixtures favor the club with no other matches against any of the other title hopeful clubs.
Besiktas
Last season’s winners, Besiktas are another team that has seen a great increase in the club’s development in recent years. The club has made it no secret that their objective is to build a team capable of performing at the top European level and their recent Champions League exploits have shown that.
Victory in the league would represent their third consecutive trophy. They’ve managed to do this with a team featuring the likes of Ricardo Quaresma, Pepe, Adriano and exciting Liverpool transfer objective Anderson Talisca.
The team’s strengths are their skill, consistency in terms of possession and the high-level of experience of their players. Although seen by many as favorites to win the title, Besiktas’s fixtures will still have the team play two of their title rivals, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce. This could be an opportunity to move on to first place or could end up ruining the team’s title chances.
Fenerbahce
The second most successful team in Turkish football, Fenerbahce uses much of the same squad formula employed by their rivals. The squad balances between talented local players with well-known, usually past their prime, international players.
Roberto Soldado, Martin Skrtel, Mathieu Valbuena, Robin van Persie are among the most famous players active in the Turkish league. However, it’s not been quite the season fans would have expected, with the team being unglamorously eliminated from the Europa League by Vardar Skopje.
While their performances have varied, the team seems to be on a good run lately, having won four of their last five games. Their remaining fixtures could favor them to keep the run going. If they manage that and their rivals slip up, Fenerbahce could end up being this year’s Süper Lig champions
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