The Champions League playoffs are upon us this week with Molde and Galatasaray making it to the final stage of the qualification round with both sides set to clash across two legs with the first battle coming at the Aker Stadium.
Galatasaray are normally into the group stages of the Champions League without much hassle, and despite winning the league quite comfortably last season, they have still had to qualify the long way round.
📸🦁 #MOLvGS pic.twitter.com/UYwAnuznkB— Galatasaray SK (@GalatasaraySK) August 21, 2023
📸🦁 #MOLvGS pic.twitter.com/UYwAnuznkB
In the end, they managed to finish eight points above Fenerbahce in second and lost just four games by winning 28 other matches.
This season, the Super Lig giants have managed to draw one game and win the other after two matches, as Kayserispor drew with them 0-0 before a 2-0 victory against Trabzonspor that saw Mauro Icardi score twice after continuing his excellent form from last season.
Galatasaray have also made tough work of their qualification process so far, defeating Zalgiris 3-2 across two legs.
In the first leg, they came from behind to draw 2-2 with a goal each within three minutes of one another from Halil Dervisoglu and Abdulkerim Bardakci.
Dries Mertens was the hero in the end as his goal in the second leg earned the club a 3-2 win and passage into the second qualifying round - Galatasaray had 20 shots that day and 36 across the two legs.
The Super Lig champions then eased past Olimpija as Dervisogly and Mertens scored again in the first leg before a finish from Muhammed Kerem Akturkoglu.
The second leg saw Icardi score again, although Lucas Torreira was sent off and now misses this game as a result.
As for Molde, they are deep into their Eliteserien season with them playing throughout the summer, and with 11 games left to play from the usual 30, the club are sitting fourth and outside of the three European spots.
Last season, the club won the league by an almighty 18 points and won seven more games than the second-placed Bodo/Glimt.
This year, however, Molde sit adrift of Bodo/Glimt in first by 10 points and are behind Tromso in third by five points.
The Norwegian side have also struggled at times in the Champions League qualifiers by losing to HJK in the first leg of the second qualifying round before coming back to win 2-1 in leg two.
Molde did also lose to KI in their third round qualifying leg two before a 2-0 win.
Forebet predicts a draw here and for the game to see over 2.5 goals.