Istanbul Basaksehir play host to Ankaragucu at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium on Thursday for the first leg of their Turkish Cup semi-final tie.

Both sides overcame tough opposition in the previous round to reach this stage, with the hosts hetting past Galatasaray while their visitors beat Trabzonspor in the quarter-finals.

Basaksehir began this year’s Turkish Cup campaign in the fifth round with a home game against Goztepe in December, and they progressed to the round of 16 with a 3-1 victory before meeting Fatih Karagumruk with a quarter-final spot at stake.

After that game was level at a goal each following regular time, their opponents looked set to come out on top in the extra 30 minutes, only for Basaksehir to win a penalty in the 121st minute, which Deniz Turuc converted to force a penalty shootout, with the Grey Owls eventually winning at that stage.

That booked them a tough test away at Galatasaray in the final eight in early April, and they twice went ahead through Patryk Szysz and Danijel Aleksic. only for Kaan Ayhan and Mauro Icardi to equalise, before Szysz scoring his second of the game in the 66th minute, deciding the tie as a result and securing their semi-final spot for the second time in their last three Turkish Cup campaigns.

Basaksehir last game was a week ago when they beat Giresunspor 4-2 away from home through braces from Adnan Januzaj and Joao Figueiredo, before recently seeing three points added to their tally at the weekend as they were scheduled to meet Hatayspor, who withdrew from the league early in the new year.

That result saw them maintain their place in fifth place with 51 points on the board in the Super Lig, and Basaksehir will now turn their attention to the Turkish Cup with the aim of taking a major step towards the final with a home victory to put them in the ascendancy on aggregate.

Ankaragucu will make the trip for their fifth game of the cup campaign, having entered a round earlier than the hosts in a meeting with Amed Sportif in November, in which they claimed a 6-2 victory through braces from Jese Rodriguez and Ghayas Zahid and goals from Sinan Osmanoglu and Anastasios Chatzigiovanis.

They would then meet Tuzlaspor and progress with a 2-0 victory as Rodriguez was again in the scoresheet alongside Federico Macheda, booking a tricky round-of 16 tie with giants Besiktas, in which they went ahead through Ali Sowe before Cenk Tosun forced a period of extra time with a 77th-minute equaliser for the visitors.

With additional period not producing any more goals, the game went all the way to a penalty shootout, and Ankaragucu would eventually prevail with no mistakes from the spot, before most recently meeting Trabzonspor in the quarter-finals under the new management of Tolunay Kafkas, and they would come from a goal down to eventually win 3-1 as Sowe scored a second-half brace alongside a goal from Lamine Diack.

Ankaragucu will now head into Thursday’s tie in high spirits, having taken huge steps towards confirming their safety in the Turkish Super Lig since the victory over Trabzonspor, adding 10 points to their tally in the last five scheduled matches, although with three of those coming from a cancelled meeting with Hatayspor.

Now on the back of a goalless draw at home to Kasimpasa last weekend, Kafkas’ side will be keen to begin the cup tie with a positive result on their travels before welcoming Istanbul Basaksehir to the Eryaman Stadium for the second leg later this month.

Istanbul Basaksehir vs. Ankaragucu Head to head

In the 20 previous meetings between these two teams, Basaksehir have claimed 11 victories while Ankaragucu have won four, and they have drawn in five. Ankaragucu have scored 24 goals and conceded 31 in the process.

• 19/06/2020
  Ankaragucu

  1

  Istanbul Basaksehir

  2
  Super Lig
• 10/01/2021
  Ankaragucu

  1

  Istanbul Basaksehir

  2
  Super Lig
• 03/05/2021
  Istanbul Basaksehir

  2

  Ankaragucu

  1
  Super Lig
• 01/10/2022
  Ankaragucu

  1

  Istanbul Basaksehir

  2
  Super Lig
• 01/04/2023
  Istanbul Basaksehir

  1

  Ankaragucu

  0
  Super Lig