Caykur Rizespor host Besiktas at the Caykur Didi Stadyumu on Friday evening, 15 May 2026, a final-week match that could hand Rizespor an eighth-place finish or let Besiktas cap their season sweep of the northern side; Khusniddin Alikulov has been sidelined since suffering a serious knee injury in January and will not factor into the day’s drama.
The numbers give the game its weight. Rizespor sit eighth on 40 points, level with Konyaspor and only ahead on goal difference, and a home win would lift them to 43 points, OneFootball says. Besiktas are already guaranteed fourth place and would move to 62 points with victory, and they come in having collected the fourth-most points on the road this season. Rizespor have won only one of their last four league matches and were thumped 4-0 away at Eyupspor in their most recent outing; yet they have won each of their last five home league matches, scoring 12 goals and keeping two clean sheets in those games. The visitors carry recent blows of their own—defeats in cup and league before a 2-0 victory at Gaziantep—but they have beaten Rizespor twice already this campaign, 1-0 in the league in December 2025 and 4-1 in the Turkish Cup in March 2026.
Context follows the weight: Rizespor are trying to improve on ninth-place finishes in the two seasons since returning to the top flight, and Friday’s result is more than a single three points. Beyond points totals it is a chance to end a long-standing pattern—Rizespor have failed to win any of their last 12 home meetings with Besiktas across all competitions, including league defeats stretching back to a home win over Besiktas in 2005. Besiktas, with fourth secured and a four-point cushion over fifth-placed Goztepe, arrive able to protect position rather than chase it, and a win would complete a season sweep after the two earlier victories.
The tension is straightforward and bitter: Rizespor’s recent home form argues for hope, but the fixture history does not. Five straight home wins and a dozen goals in that run suggest momentum at Caykur Didi Stadyumu, yet the club’s inability to beat Besiktas at home in 12 attempts creates a stubborn gap between form and outcome. Selection headaches deepen the uncertainty. Khusniddin Alikulov has been out since January; Altin Zeqiri is set to miss a sixth consecutive match because of an ankle issue; Kartal Yilmaz is expected to be unavailable with a torn ankle ligament; Milot Rashica could miss a third straight game with a bone oedema problem; Gokhan Sazdagi remains a major doubt after missing the last four matchday squads; and Necip Uysal is serving a suspension tied to the betting scandal. Those absences and doubts leave both managers juggling more than tactics.
Friday’s match will therefore hinge on two clear battlegrounds: whether Rizespor can translate home momentum into a result against a side they have long failed to beat at this ground, and whether Besiktas can withstand the pressure of a team fighting for a finishing place while managing their own injury and suspension list. Besiktas’ recent away 2-0 win at Gaziantep and their overall road haul suggest they are not vulnerable on the travel front, but their cup and league slip-ups earlier this month show a side capable of dropping points.
The single question that matters when the whistle blows is a narrow, consequential one: can Rizespor finally break a 12-game home winless run against Besiktas and climb to 43 points, or will Besiktas complete their season sweep and leave Rize with the point—or three—they need to close the campaign in fourth?
