The Turkish Super Lig 2023-24 season kicks off on Friday with Trabzonspor hosting Antalyaspor at Senol Gunes Spor Kompleksi Papara Park.
Both teams had differing pre-seasons, with Trabzon looking sharper than the visiting side based on the tune-up games.
Despite finishing sixth, Trabzonspor were 12 points behind Adana Demirspor in the rankings, forcing the 2021-22 winners to not only relinquish their league crown but also fail to qualify for European football this season.
Nenad Bjelica took over in mid-April, after a seven-game losing streak in all competitions, until a late-season surge saw them win four of their last six league games.
The Burgundy Blues' pre-season looked promising, as they rebounded from a 2-0 setback to Hajduk Split to go unbeaten in five of their next six games, losing only to AEK Athens at the end of July.
Trabzonspor's 5-0 victory against 1461 Trabzon FK in their final preseason game puts them in strong position for the start of the season.
Antalyaspor will seek to end Trabzonspor's four-game winning streak at home under Bjelica, even though their off-season records suggest otherwise.After beating Istanbul Basaksehir and Alanyaspor to start the preseason, Nuri Sahin's team has yet to win in five games.
Notable in that run was an inability to score regularly, as seen by blanks against Rizespor and Sivasspor before scoring once each against Pendikspor, Istanbulspor, and Hatayspor.
The scorching problem precedes the off-season, with the Scorpions among the league's lowest scorers in 2022-23, outscoring only relegated Giresunspor (42), Ankaragucu (43) and Kasimpasa (45).
They had one of the league's poorest road records, accumulating one point more than the division's worst away side, Alanyaspor, perhaps lowering their chances of winning on Friday, even if Sahin's team would aim to establish that results may not follow last season's trend.
