Black Eagles from Besiktas Istanbul seek for their second victory in group E in tonight’s clash with Tony Pulis’ anti-football side Stoke City.

Tony Pulis’ side started their Europa League Group E campaign with an encouraging 1-1 draw with Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine a week ago. Anti-Football is the best term to describe Stoke City’s approach to the game. And they play it almost to a perfection. Stoke City will be more hopeful of getting maximum points at the Britannia Stadium especially as they are coming off the back of an 1-1 draw with defending English champions and Premiere League leaders Manchester United at home on Saturday and have also not lost in their last seven European matches.

Besiktas on the other hand has a bad record against English teams at games played in England. With debacles like 8-0 against Liverpool and 6-0 against Leeds United may be discouraging for the Turkisk Gianyts. However, Besiktas will not be easy pushovers as the former Turkish champions and current Turkish Cup Holders have more European experience than their Premier League hosts.

The Istanbul-based more than a century old club won comprehensively against Maccabi Tel-Aviv 5-1 at their Europe League debut for this year and have come to England with confidence. Besiktas have a star-studded team with Portugese coach Carlos Carvalhal (who was appointed Besiktas manager, after previous manager Tayfur Havutcu had been jailed in the match fixing scandal, for having made a transfer offer to Besiktas’s opponent before the Cup-Title clash) able to field the likes of Simao Sabrosa, Ricardo Quaresma, Manuel Fernandes, Fabian Ernst, Ekrem Dag (star player of Austria!) and Rüstü Recber.

The Black Eagles perched in third position in the Turkish Super Lig and having won their last four competitive matches, scoring 11 goals in the process, but have been criticised heavily for their lack of creativity and field discipline. Besiktas currently deals with former Real Madrid star Guti. The Spaniard, despite being still a fan favourite, is nothing but trouble lately, since he cannot make into 19 man match squad, let alone first team

Stoke City vs Besiktas Europe League Clash : Team News

Tony Pulis will not be able to call on the services of right-back Andy Wilkinson as he is out with a thigh injury he sustained against Man United. Kenwyne Jones is out with a hamstring injury, while Rory Delap, Marc Wilson and Matthew Etherington are doubtful with knocks. Salif Diao is also sidelined with a fractured cheekbone.

Stoke defender Jonathan Woodgate is not available as he is not part of Stoke’s squad for the Europa League.

Guti is not part of the 19-man Besiktas squad that has travelled to England. Also Portugese striker Hugo Almeida is left in Istanbul due his injury. Bebe, on loan from Manchester United, sustained a severe injury in August and will miss the bigger part of 2011-2012 season.

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