Eyupspor vs Rizespor preview, team news, h2h as Abdullahi tackles Super Eagles’ Olawoyin

Two Nigerian footballers find themselves on opposite sides when Eyupspor welcome Caykur Rizespor to the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium on Saturday in the Turkish Super Lig.

Two Nigerian footballers find themselves on opposite sides when Eyupspor welcome Caykur Rizespor to the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium on Saturday in the Turkish Super Lig, Afrik-Foot reports.

Super Eagles midfielder Ibrahim Olawoyin, who has been a standout performer for Rizespor over the past three seasons, travels to Istanbul with his side sitting on six points from four matches.

On the other flank, Ahmed Abdullahi, the 22-year-old Nigerian forward who joined Eyupspor from Sunderland in August, has already made three starts for his new club and scored once in the early weeks of the campaign.

The hosts enter this round five fixture in worrying form, having collected just three points from their opening four league matches under new manager Ozhan Pulat.

Eyupspor vs Rizespor: form, standings and early-season context

Eyupspor are enduring a difficult start to their third season in the top flight, and the numbers do not make for comfortable reading in the Eyupsultan district.

A 1-0 defeat at Besiktas on the opening weekend set the tone, and a second consecutive loss followed when Gaziantep left Istanbul with all three points after a 1-0 win at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium.

Gormer Gent and Sunderland striker Abdullahi scored his first Eyupspor goal in the round three victory over Alanyaspor, a 2-1 home win that offered a brief respite.

That momentum was promptly extinguished at Corum, where Eyupspor were dismantled 3-0 in a performance that left serious questions about Pulat’s defensive organisation.

Two goals scored and five conceded from four matches places Eyupspor 14th in the table on three points, and the early signs suggest a repeat of last season’s relegation fight, when they finished 15th.

Rizespor, by contrast, have managed six points from the same number of fixtures, though their season has followed a curious alternating pattern of winning away and losing at home.

Recep Ucar’s side opened with a disciplined 1-0 win at Konyaspor before falling 2-0 at home to Samsunspor in round two.

Another away victory followed at Gaziantep, where Rizespor came from behind to win 2-1, a result that demonstrated resilience and attacking quality on the road.

That away form deserted them at home once more, though, as Alanyaspor left Rize with a 1-0 win in the most recent round.

The Black Sea club sit sixth in the standings, and their away record of two wins from two away games is among the strongest in the league.

That particular statistic should concern Eyupspor, whose home record reads one win and one defeat from two matches at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium.

Head-to-head record between Eyupspor and Rizespor

These two clubs have only been meeting in the Super Lig since 2024, when Eyupspor earned promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history.

In roughly six meetings across the past two-and-a-half seasons, Rizespor hold a commanding advantage with four victories and just one defeat.

The reverse fixture in the 2025-26 campaign was particularly emphatic: Rizespor won 3-0 at the Caykur Didi Stadium in December 2025, with Qazim Laci converting a penalty just before half time before Samet Akaydin and Ali Sowe completed the rout after the break.

Eyupspor did manage to turn the tables comprehensively later that same season, winning the return fixture 4-0 at home in May 2026.

That result remains Eyupspor’s only victory in this fixture, and it was achieved against a Rizespor side with little left to play for at that stage of the season.

The overall trend has shown that when both sides have something meaningful at stake, Rizespor have tended to come out on top.

Team news and predicted lineups for Eyupspor vs Rizespor

Eyupspor’s squad has undergone significant turnover since the end of last season, with several established figures departing and new arrivals still bedding in under Pulat.

Horatiu Moldovan, the Romanian international goalkeeper, has replaced Marcos Felipe as the first-choice number one and will be expected to start between the posts. Calegari, the Brazilian right-back and club captain, remains the heartbeat of the backline, with Moroccan centre-back Jawad El Yamiq providing experience alongside him.

In midfield, Abdelhamid Sabiri brings international pedigree from his time with the Morocco national team, while Konrad Michalak adds energy and creativity from deeper positions.

Abdullahi has established himself as a first-choice option in the forward line since his summer move, starting three of the four league matches so far. Luccas Claro remains a long-term absentee with a cruciate ligament injury sustained in January 2026, and his absence continues to weaken Eyupspor’s defensive options.

Eyupspor predicted XI (4-1-4-1): Moldovan; Calegari, El Yamiq, Jules, Sy; Michalak; Raux Yao, Sabiri, Costa, Boutobba; Abdullahi

Rizespor have fewer concerns over personnel, with Ucar having largely maintained a settled squad through the summer window.

Ivorian goalkeeper Yahia Fofana has been the undisputed starter since arriving at the club, and the back four is likely to feature Danish defender Casper Hojer Nielsen alongside Greek international Giannis Papanikolaou in the centre.

Olawoyin, who wore the number 10 shirt throughout the 2025-26 season, is expected to feature in an advanced midfield role despite the recent transfer speculation linking him to Saudi Arabia. His compatriot Adedire Mebude, who scored against Kasimpasa last season, offers another Nigerian option from the bench.

Ali Sowe, the Gambian striker who netted in the 3-0 win over Eyupspor in December, leads the line.

Rizespor predicted XI (4-1-4-1): Fofana; Pala, Akaydin, Papanikolaou, Nielsen; Antalyali; Olawoyin, Laci, Kirikci, Mihaila; Sowe

Star player showdown

Both Nigerian players bring contrasting profiles to this contest.

Abdullahi is the younger man at 22, a raw centre-forward with explosive pace who scored 21 goals in 38 youth matches at Gent before moving to Sunderland, where injuries hampered his progress.

Olawoyin, at 28, is the more experienced figure with two senior Super Eagles caps and over 100 appearances for Rizespor, where he has established himself as a creative fulcrum in the attacking midfield. The Lagos-born playmaker scored three goals and registered multiple assists across the 2025-26 campaign, including a goal and an assist in a 3-2 win over Adana Demirspor.

The managers: Pulat and Ucar

Ozhan Pulat arrived at Eyupspor on June 29, 2026, making this his first Super Lig head coaching appointment at the age of 41.

The Bursa-born coach previously managed Kastamonuspor 1966 in the third tier, Adanaspor in the second division, and had a brief spell at Hatayspor in 2024. His preferred formation is a 4-1-4-1, a system designed to provide defensive stability, though the results so far suggest the players have not yet fully absorbed his ideas.

One win from four matches is a return that will invite scrutiny, particularly after the 3-0 collapse at Corum.

Recep Ucar, by contrast, is the more seasoned of the two managers at 50 years of age with a track record of working with modest-budget clubs. The former Istanbul Basaksehir right-back made his name at Umraniyespor, guiding the club to a first-ever Super Lig promotion in 2022.

After stints at Kayserispor and Konyaspor, Ucar took charge of Rizespor in December 2025 and has brought a degree of organisation to the Black Sea outfit.

His record at Rizespor across all competitions stands at seven wins, six draws and seven defeats, a workmanlike if unspectacular return that has kept the club comfortably away from the relegation places.

Tactical preview: how Eyupspor and Rizespor could match up

Both managers favour a 4-1-4-1 shape, which should create an intriguing tactical chess match in the midfield zones.

Eyupspor’s approach under Pulat has leaned heavily on their home support and a compact defensive shape designed to limit space between the lines. The problem is that Eyupspor have struggled to transition from defence into attack with any real speed, scoring just two goals across four league matches.

Sabiri, the Moroccan playmaker, has the quality to unlock defences, but he has lacked support from the wide positions, and the attacking movements have appeared disjointed.

Rizespor’s strength on the road comes from their ability to absorb pressure and break quickly through the pace of Olawoyin and the movement of Sowe. Their two away wins this season, at Konyaspor and Gaziantep, both followed a similar template: defend deep, stay disciplined, and punish the opposition on the counter.

Albanian midfielder Laci acts as the pivot in Rizespor’s transition play, dictating tempo from the centre of the park and picking passes into the final third.

Eyupspor’s defensive frailty, having conceded five goals in four matches, plays directly into Rizespor’s counter-attacking approach. The key battle may well be in the central midfield corridor, where Eyupspor need to control possession to prevent Rizespor from exploiting the space behind their full-backs.

Eyupspor vs Rizespor prediction and betting tips

This fixture has all the ingredients of a tight, low-scoring affair between two sides still searching for rhythm in the early weeks of the campaign.

Eyupspor’s home record offers marginal encouragement, but the 3-0 defeat at Corum exposed a squad lacking confidence and cohesion under a new manager. Rizespor’s away record of two wins from two represents genuine form, and Ucar’s pragmatic approach is well suited to grinding out results on the road.

The head-to-head record still favours the visitors, but Eyupspor’s emphatic 4-0 win in May shows they are capable of dominating this fixture under the right circumstances.

With both teams averaging fewer than one goal per game this season, the Under 2.5 Goals market looks the safest entry point. At 3.30, the draw offers strong value given the evenly matched nature of this contest and the pattern of results both sides have produced.

Final score prediction: Eyupspor vs Rizespor

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