Going into this match, the Crocs are third in the 17-team league with 23 points, while Gençlerbirliği is ninth with 16 points. This, coupled with the home crowd factor, makes the Green Crocs the favorites this evening.But the fact of the matter is that the favorite tag, more often than not, counts for nothing whenever or wherever Ankara’s Gençler is at issue.
Young Bursa coach Ertuğrul Sağlam knows this fact more than anyone and has therefore asked his players to raise the level of their game this evening after dropping two precious points in the 1-1 away draw with Antalyaspor last weekend. The result snapped Bursaspor’s five-game unbeaten run.
“The Antalya match is a thing of the past,” Sağlam said in his midweek news conference. “There is another important game ahead of us [on Friday], therefore we must strive to concentrate on the positives,” he further asserted.
Sağlam has to deal with injuries to teenage defender Serdar Aziz and teen Turkey striker Sercan Yıldırım. The two players trained separately from the rest of the team on Wednesday and are doubtful today.
Gençlerbirliği fared worse last weekend, losing 2-0 at home to struggling newcomer Manisaspor at the capital’s 19 Mayıs Stadium. But Gençler’s German coach Thomas Doll has said that was a one-off event and that they are going to prepare very well for the Bursa encounter.
“There are three options in soccer: win, lose or draw,” the German coach said this week. “And so losing a match does not mean the end of the world. We will right the wrongs,” he added.
Kickoff is at 8 p.m., and the referee will be Yunus Yıldırım.
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