Gaziantep vs Besiktas preview, team news, and H2H as Ndidi eyes Conference League

Turkish Super Lig side Gaziantep FK welcome Besiktas to the Gaziantep Stadyumu on Friday as the season edges closer to a close, Afrik Foot reports.

Burak Yilmaz’s side are safe from the fear of relegation to the second-tier this season, even if they’ve only won one of their last five games.

Besiktas, on the other hand, are basking in 4th position, looking to secure a place in the UEFA Conference League next season.

Match Preview: Gaziantep vs. Beşiktaş

The fixture carries a significance for Beşiktaş that goes well beyond its mid-table appearance on paper.

The Black Eagles sit fourth in the Super Lig, maintaining a five-point lead over fifth-placed Istanbul Başakşehir with three matches remaining, a position that carries direct access to UEFA Conference League qualification.

Having spent much of the season building that lead, the last four league games have introduced a deeply unwelcome layer of anxiety.

Defeats to Fenerbahçe and Samsunspor, sandwiched around a frustrating goalless draw against bottom-placed Fatih Karagümrük, represent a return of just one point from a possible nine. European football is still within their grasp, but they must begin winning again, starting in a stadium where they have never won.

Gaziantep approach this game in a far more comfortable state of mind. Sitting nine points clear of the relegation zone with only three matches left, they are all but confirmed as a Super Lig side for another season, and that relative security could allow them to play with a freedom that has been absent in recent weeks.

Mohamed Bayo has been the focal point of their attack throughout the campaign, and the hosts have shown a stubborn resistance at home in this fixture that makes them a far more dangerous proposition than their league position might suggest.

Head to Head: Gaziantep vs. Beşiktaş

Across 18 meetings in all competitions, Beşiktaş lead the overall head-to-head with nine wins to Gaziantep’s five, with four draws.

The aggregate goalscoring reflects that superiority; Beşiktaş have found the net 32 times in those meetings to Gaziantep’s 18.

The recent and venue-specific records, however, tell a different story. Beşiktaş have failed to win any of their last four meetings with Gaziantep, taking two draws and suffering two defeats.

In six previous league visits to the Gaziantep Stadyumu, the Black Eagles have never won, drawing three and losing three.

The reverse fixture in December 2025 at the Tüpraş Stadyumu ended 2-2, a result that denied Beşiktaş a crucial victory on home soil.

In the current season, matches between these two clubs have produced an average of 2.82 goals per game, underlining the tendency for these encounters to be open, high-scoring affairs.

Team News

Beşiktaş

The most significant development heading into Friday’s fixture is the return of Ndidi.

The Super Eagles captain had been sidelined since sustaining a Grade 2 partial hamstring tear during the 1-0 defeat to Fenerbahçe on 5 April, and was then ruled out of the home game against Antalyaspor due to a one-match suspension for accumulated yellow cards.

After two weeks of rehabilitation, Ndidi was pictured returning to full team training at the BJK Nevzat Demir facilities on 20 April, working alongside his teammates under Sergen Yalçın.

Since joining from Leicester City last summer, Ndidi has made 28 appearances across all competitions, scoring twice in the Super Lig, and has established himself as the defensive anchor upon which Beşiktaş’s midfield structure depends.

His absence across the last four league games coincides almost exactly with Beşiktaş’s alarming dip in form, one point from a possible 12 since his injury and suspension combined to remove him from the picture.

Predicted Beşiktaş XI (4-2-3-1): Devis Vasquez; Sazdağı, Agbadou, Uduokhai, Murillo; Uçan, Ndidi; Cerny, Kökcü, Olaitan; Oh.

Gaziantep

Gaziantep will be without Ali Mevran Ablak and Salem M’Bakata, both sidelined with long-term knee injuries, while Badou Ndiaye continues to work his way back to full fitness.

The absences thin out their midfield options, but they retain the attacking quality of Bayo, who has consistently troubled Beşiktaş in recent meetings, and the organisational structure that has made them so difficult to beat at home in this specific fixture.

Predicted Gaziantep XI (4-3-3): Gorgen; Sorescu, Abena, Kızıldağ, Rodrigues; Gidado; Lungoye, Maxim, Camara, Kozlowski; Bayo.

The Managers

Sergen Yalçın faces the most pressurised period of his Beşiktaş tenure. Having built a genuine Conference League push across the first two-thirds of the season.

Gaziantep’s manager has the relative luxury of approaching Friday’s game without meaningful pressure from below.

Nine points clear of the relegation zone with three games remaining, his side are effectively playing for pride, end-of-season contracts and the enjoyment of making life difficult for a top-four rival.

That combination: freedom from consequence coupled with the incentive of denying Beşiktaş, has historically produced committed performances from mid-table sides, and the head-to-head record at this venue suggests Gaziantep’s players know how to exploit Beşiktaş’s discomfort away from the Tüpraş Stadyumu.

Tactical Preview

Yalçın is likely to persist with a 4-1-4-1 structure, with the identity of the holding midfield pivot the central selection question.

If Ndidi is deemed fit to start, Beşiktaş immediately recover the defensive stability and ball-winning capacity to operate as the sole disciplined presence behind the creative unit, a role he has performed creditably but not convincingly when the quality of opposition has been higher.

Kökcü and Cerny remain the primary creative outlets, and Oh’s direct running in behind gives Beşiktaş their clearest route to goal on the counter.

Gaziantep have proven a stubborn opponent in recent years and this makes the fixture a tricky affair, but Beşiktaş still carry enough individual quality to earn at least a point. The concern is the venue.

Beşiktaş have not managed a single win in six previous visits to the Gaziantep Stadyumu, and the patterns of those games, competent for long spells, fragile at key moments, mirror exactly what has been happening to Yalçın’s side in their recent form slump.

Gaziantep score in 90% of their home matches, while Beşiktaş have been involved in matches producing over 1.5 goals in 91.3% of their away fixtures.