Galatasaray hosts St. Johnstone in the first leg of the Europa League qualification semifinals. The match will be played on Thursday, August 5th at Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium (Istanbul)
Galatasaray, which took 2nd place in the last season of the Turkish Championship, received the right to play in the Champions League qualification. However, the Turks said goodbye to this tournament already in the 2nd qualifying round. The Istanbul team was not lucky to run into the Dutch PSV, which hammered it with a total score of 2-7 (5-1 at home and 1-2 in Turkey). After that, the vice-champions of Turkey dropped to the Europa League qualification. The relegation from the Champions League with its big prize money was a hard blow for the Lions, who are experiencing financial problems. After the defeat to PSV, the president of Galatasaray Burak Elmas said that the club could part with the players with the highest salaries. The problem for Galatasaray is the lack of competitive practice. After the return match against PSV on July 28, the Lions did not play a single official match, as the Turkish championship starts only in mid-August.
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St. Johnstone delighted fans with two glorious victories in the 2020/21 season. In February, the Saints won the Scottish League Cup for the first time in history, and in May they added a victory in the Scottish Cup. Thanks to this triumph, Saint Johnstone will play in European competition for the first time since 2017. The Saints will start from the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League. On July 31, they began a new Scottish Championship with an away draw against Ross County. The match in Dingwall ended without goals (0-0), although the visitors could have won if Alistair McCann had converted a penalty in the 70th minute.
These teams have not yet crossed paths on football pitches in the past, but the pre-match layouts indicate a noticeable superiority of the Turkish team. Galatasaray looked weak in the confrontation with PSV and may lose some of the leaders, but even in this state, the Lions look stronger than the middle peasant of the Scottish Championship, which has never played in the group stages of European competitions. On the other hand, St. Johnstone is capable of imposing a fight on a more eminent team. The Turks have shown that they are experiencing serious problems in defense. Despite the status of the home team, Galatasaray regularly concedes on its pitch in European competitions. The Lions did not keep a clean sheet in six of seven previous games.
Prediction for the match: St. Johnstone to score over 0.5 goals
