Two of the Turkish Süper Lig’s “Big Four,” Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş on Thursday will take separate fields with a shared purpose: to hoist the Crescent-Star banner excessive within the early phases of the UEFA Europe Conference League.
Fenerbahçe are gearing as much as host Nordsjaelland within the opening match of UEFA Europa Conference League Group H on the Şükrü Saracoğlu Sports Complex.
The Yellow Canaries launched into this journey from the second qualifying spherical, eliminating Zimbru and Maribor within the third qualifying spherical.
They continued their march by overcoming Twente within the playoff stage, securing their spot within the group stage.
Meanwhile, the Danish facet, Nordsjaelland, additionally earned their place within the group stage by defeating FCSB within the third qualifying spherical and Partizan within the playoff spherical.
For Fenerbahçe, this marks their ninth look within the UEFA Europa Conference League, which was launched by the UEFA for the 2021-2022 season.
The final time they reached the spherical of 16 playoff stage, they confronted Slavia Prague.
In this season’s qualifiers, Fenerbahçe contested six matches.
Over the course of their eight appearances within the Conference League, they’ve notched up six victories and two losses, discovering the again of the online 25 occasions whereas conceding simply eight objectives.
In whole, Fenerbahçe has featured in 260 European matches, with 101 victories, 55 attracts and 104 defeats.
During these encounters, the Yellow Canaries have scored 347 objectives whereas conceding 369.
One exceptional stat in Fenerbahçe’s favor is their spectacular run of not shedding a European match in Kadıköy of their final 9 outings.
This season, within the Conference League, they’ve gained all three of their house matches, and within the earlier season’s Europa League, they secured victory in six out of six house video games, with one match ending in a draw.
Facing Nordsjaelland for the primary time, Fenerbahçe have crossed paths with Danish groups on solely two events of their historical past.
In the 2006-2007 season, they squared off towards Randers and emerged victorious in each encounters.
Fenerbahçe’s season kicked off with a 10-match profitable streak, spanning the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying rounds and the Turkish Süper Lig.
They secured victory in all six Conference League qualifiers and notched up 4 wins within the Süper Lig, amassing 12 factors whereas scoring 29 objectives and conceding simply 5.
The influence of latest signings has been pivotal for Fenerbahçe.
Edin Dzeko has been a standout with six objectives and 5 assists through the profitable streak, whereas Sebastian Szymanski has contributed with 5 objectives and 4 assists.
Dusan Tadic, alternatively, has added 4 objectives and two assists, totaling six purpose contributions.
On the opposite facet, Nordsjaelland are having a formidable season within the Danish Super Liga, with 5 wins, two attracts, and just one loss of their first eight matches.
They sit in third place with 17 factors, simply two factors behind league leaders Copenhagen.
Nordsjaelland boast the very best purpose tally within the league, having scored 21 objectives up to now.
The Eagle lands
In the Conference League Group D Fenerbahçe fellow Istanbulites Beşiktaş will enterprise into the den of Belgian facet Club Brugge, as they intention to increase their exceptional profitable streak in European competitions.
The Black Eagles have been on an astonishing run in Europe, securing victory in six consecutive matches.
This exceptional feat was achieved for the primary time through the qualifiers of the UEFA Europa Conference League, the place Beşiktaş triumphed with a flawless six out of six wins.
This season, Beşiktaş launched into their European journey from the second qualifying spherical of Europe’s third-tier membership competitors.
They overcame numerous obstacles, dispatching Tirana with 3-1 and 2-0 victories, defeating Azerbaijan’s Neftçi with scores of 3-1 and 2-1, and triumphing over Dinamo Kyiv 4-2 on mixture.
The Black Eagles have emerged victorious in all six encounters they’ve graced up to now.
As they put together to tackle Club Brugge within the opening fixture of Group D, they’re desirous to push their profitable streak to a formidable seven video games.
To put this in context, the final time Beşiktaş loved such an intensive string of victories in European competitions was through the 2010-2011 season within the UEFA Europa League, the place they clinched 5 consecutive wins.
Their extraordinary run in that marketing campaign started within the third qualifying spherical with a commanding 3-0 victory over Czechia’s Viktoria Plzen.
The momentum continued by way of the playoff spherical, the place they dispatched Finland’s HJK Helsinki with ease, securing mixture wins of 2-0 and 4-0.
In the group stage, they additional showcased their prowess, defeating Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia with a 1-0 rating and Austria’s Rapid Wien with a 2-1 scoreline.
However, their five-match profitable streak in Europe that season was halted with a 3-1 loss to Porto within the group stage.
In the identical 2010-2011 season, Beşiktaş reached one other milestone by remaining undefeated in European competitions for eight consecutive matches.
During that memorable marketing campaign, beneath the German tactician Bernd Schuster, Beşiktaş made fairly an impression within the UEFA Europa League.
Alas, their streak got here to an finish within the group stage’s third match, the place they confronted defeat towards Porto.
Under Şenol Güneş, Beşiktaş managed a formidable run of seven consecutive unbeaten matches in European competitions.
This streak occurred through the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons.
In the 2016-2017 UEFA Europa League, Beşiktaş triumphed 2-1 towards Olympique Lyon within the quarterfinal second leg.
However, they had been eradicated through penalty shootout, regardless of the victory.
The 2017-2018 UEFA Champions League marketing campaign noticed Beşiktaş progress into the spherical of 16 as group leaders after securing 4 wins and two attracts within the group stage.
In Europe, they maintained their dominance all through April 2017 and February 2018, remaining unbeaten in all seven matches.
Unfortunately, their exceptional streak got here to an finish within the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, the place they suffered a crushing 5-0 defeat towards Bayern Munich.
Source: www.dailysabah.com