Deportivo Alaves vs Besiktas

Estadio Camilo Cano plays host to an intriguing pre-season friendly between last season’s La Liga relegation boys Deportivo Alaves and Turkish powerhouse Besiktas.

Deportivo Alaves failed to keep hold of their La Liga status last season as an underwhelming 19th-place finish resulted in an immediate relegation. It’s not strange then that several key first-team players left the club over the summer, leaving new boss Luis Garcia Plaza with nothing but bare bones to work with moving forward. ‘Los Babazorros’ have blown hot and cold during their pre-season (W1, D1, L1), including a 4-0 defeat to Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers. Their solitary off-season success came last time out at the expense of non-league outfit Intercity (5-0). Curiously, this won’t be the first time they meet Besiktas, as the two sides collided in UEFA Cup first knockout round in 2002, with the Turkish side running out 2-1 aggregate victors.

On the oher hand, Besiktas fell to a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Wolverhampton last time out, ending an almost perfect pre-season record (W2, D1). Severely weakened by several high-profile summer exits, Valerin Ismael’s men have netted under 1.5 goals in their last three exhibition matches, casting doubt on their prolificacy. That doesn’t bode well for their ambition to improve on a disappointing sixth-place finish in the Turkish Super Lig last season. But on the bright side, they had conceded one goal or fewer is six consecutive outings before the abovementioned reverse against Wolves.