It's the first leg of the Europa Conference League qualifiers this Thursday evening for Konyaspor and BATE Borisov as Konyaspor welcomes them to the Konya Metropolitan Municipality Stadium right in the middle of the Belarusian Premier League season.
No doubt that because the Turkish season ended a while back in line with most of Europe, BATE are the more in-form side here.
✈️ Отправляемся в Турцию таким составом 🙌#ФКБАТЭ #КПобедеВместе pic.twitter.com/wmyJaMeqhp— FC BATE Borisov (@FCBATE) July 19, 2022
✈️ Отправляемся в Турцию таким составом 🙌#ФКБАТЭ #КПобедеВместе pic.twitter.com/wmyJaMeqhp
We are at the midpoint in the Belarusian top flight with exactly 15 of the 30 scheduled games played, and this now sees BATE top of the division once more in pursuit of winning back the title after three consecutive seasons of finishing third.
Aleksandr Mikhaylov's side have so far won eight of the 15 games in the league to this point which does see them sit top of the league table by just one point above second-placed Isloch and third-placed Energetik-BGU.
BATE have lost just twice in the league as well to this point, and with them doing well in the Belarusian Cup too, there's absolutely no need to be fearful for BATE fans on the domestic front this campaign.
What's more, they've racked up five draws so far with 27 goals scored and 10 conceded - nobody has a better goals difference than them as well.
Form does look a lot weaker now than it did a few weeks back, however, as the club have now not won in three games and in fact won just one of their last five outings. A recent loss to Arsenal Dzyarzhynsk, a 2-2 draw with Minsk and a 1-1 draw with Energetik-BGU has now cut their lead drastically at the top in July.
BATE’s last win came in a 4-0 demolition of Slutsk on home soil, as Valery Gromyko and Mikita Nyakarsaw scored a goal each before a brace from Stanislaw Drahun secured all three points for the club.
As for Konyaspor, they're in the midst of preparing to build on their third-placed finish of last season in the Super Lig which saw them win 20 of the 38 games and score an excellent tally of 66 goals along the way.
In fact, the club finished 11th the season prior and 13th just before that, so finishing third for a club of their stature puts on record one of their best campaigns this century.
Given the form of BATE as they’re currently running through all of Belarus right now, Forebet predicts a win for them here and for the game to see over 2.5 goals.