Beşiktaş eye Gala victory with 3 weeks to go

Super League title holders Beşiktaş will take on Galatasaray this weekend. Gala's Lions are looking to climb a few notches up from sixth place while Beşiktaş are looking to add more to their high scoring stats with only three weeks left until the end of the season



It is derby time on Sunday for two of Turkish football's "Big Three." Perching on top of the Super League for weeks, Beşiktaş will visit the Türk Telekom Arena for a game against sixth-place Galatasaray. The Black Eagles, enjoying a streak of 23 games unbeaten, seek to garner more points than Fenerbahçe, the other member of the "Big Three" that closed the gap to only three points against Beşiktaş in second place.Galatasaray's Lions, who have endured their first lackluster season since new president Dursun Özbek took the helm in May 2015, will look to hurt the Eagles for the sake of a little solace. Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder may boost the Lions' hopes as the international is set to return for Sunday's critical game against Beşiktaş after he skipped a rematch against Çaykur Rizespor following an injury in the first game in the Ziraat semi-final.Though they were far from home in the first half of the season as its stadium underwent rebuilding, Beşiktaş managed to perform well with 70 goals in 31 weeks. The opening of their Vodafone Arena stadium last month boosted morale further and the team is only short of eight goals to have their best season since the 1996-97 season.The Lions do have one advantage against the Black Eagles, and that is the streak of victories at home. The team has not lost a game against Beşiktaş in their Türk Telekom Arena on Istanbul's European side since the 2010-11 season. Gala has won four games against Beşiktaş since then and secured a draw. Galatasaray are successful at home against their archrivals in general as they have not conceded to Fenerbahçe either. Galatasaray has won 43 games against Beşiktaş while the Black Eagles have secured victory 31 times against the Lions in the century-old history of the Istanbul-based clubs. Apart from the first league game where they lost 2-1 to Osmanlıspor, Galatasaray have never lost to any major rivals this season. Their past 14 league matches have ended with eight wins and six draws.Galatasaray has gone downhill since the season's beginning and have lost all three games against Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe so far though it secured two draws against Fener. If they lose this week's derby, it will be the first time in six years Gala have not won any derby games.The Lions had a deja vu of defeats this season when they conceded 47 goals in Super League matches, the same as the 2003-2004 season, the highest in any given season.Beşiktaş and Galatasaray share the first and second places with most goals by the end of the 31st week of the Super League with 70 and 61 goals respectively. Both teams also share the title of teams with the most shots on target with 194 and 187 shots respectively. German striker Mario Gomez boasts the record with 56 shots on target for Beşiktaş while another German national, Lukas Podolski, helped Gala to secure the title with 30 shots on target.Gomez, with 24 goals under his belt for Beşiktaş this season, is the leading scorer for the Eagles. He may surpass former Beşiktaş player Demba Ba as the highest-scoring foreign player for a Turkish team. Ba scored 27 in one season.Galatasaray coach Jan Olde Riekerink said they were looking to wrap up the season "in a good place" and said they would work to win the next three games and "wait for their rivals to make mistakes" in a statement published on the team's website on Friday. The Dutch coach said that although everybody was excited at the prospect of a derby win, becoming champion was more about what the team has done in the whole season. Riekerink said Gala had more unity in defense and he was pleased with the passion of his players.