Friday's Bet Of The Day: Turkish tussle to ignite

JACK Wright's (@JackWright_BSB) brilliant Bet of the Day continues on Friday as we head to Turkey…

Genclerbirligi vs Caykur Rizespor | Friday 23rd April 2021, 18:30

A card line to bring tears to your eyes if you’re a staunch follower of the EPL and referees such as Martin Atkinson or Kevin Friend.

However, this is Super Lig in Turkey and I’m prepared to take a chance on this one to lead us in to the weekend with some fireworks, especially with these two sides doing battle, hopefully literally.

Genclerbirligi are in desperate need of three points, with Denizlispor currently the only side beneath them in the league table – however just six points and six places separate them from Ankaragucu in 14^th so a win would be massive.

Rizespor look safe up in 11^th place, seven points clear of the relegation zone, but smashed five goals in their last outing at home to Konyaspor, also picking up a couple of yellow cards to suggest that with six games left to play, maybe they aren’t on the beach just yet.

With Rizespor's wide men looking razor sharp, especially Braian Samudio who not only scored but assisted for Loic Remy, in that 5-3 win on Tuesday it could be a testing afternoon for the Genclerbirligi defence who have been the weak link all season conceding a league high 60 goals.

The perceived lack of pace Özcan Bizati’s side has at the back could be tested by a front line clearly in good heart, so this one could become a little bit of a basketball match as the home side have looked good going forward themselves – which could lead to a few names being taken.

This clash certainly has “history” with a total of nine yellow cards in the reverse fixture in January at Çaykur Didi Stadyumu, four for Rizespor and five for Genclerbirligi, whilst in this clash last year with this same referee, the home side saw three yellows and a red with the visitors collecting two cautions of their own.

That is nothing compared to the clash some six years ago now however which saw Gençler pick up five yellows and have three men dismissed.

Gençlerbirligi games have crossed the 4.5 total cards line in nine of their last 13 games and all of the last three, while they have collected at least two cards themselves in each of their last 10 fixtures, with Rizespor also on a run of seven successive games which augurs well for our bet.

The referee, I mentioned in passing earlier is Bahattin Simsek and although he is not the most prolific Turkish official has shown an astonishing six red cards from his 13 appointments this term – and as a result it would be amiss of me not to mention that the odds for a red card to be shown in this one is 14/5 hinting at a probability of 26% – these teams have had 10 players dismissed this campaign between them.

But for the Bet of the Day it is a simple over 4.5 cards at 97/100 with Unibet.