Beşiktaş v Crystal Palace: Europa League preview, predicted line-ups & team news

Beşiktaş v Crystal Palace is a matchday three tie in the Europa League's league stage, played at Besiktas Park. Beşiktaş are fourth on six points with a goal difference of +4 after two wins from two, according to the supplied standings. Crystal Palace are 15th on three points, having won 4-0 at home to Lech Poznan before losing 3-2 at Lyon. The standings snapshot shows the top eight qualifying directly for the last 16 and the next group heading to the play-offs, so a defeat for Palace would leave them with ground to make up. Beşiktaş can move closer to the automatic places with a third straight win.

Beşiktaş have won seven of their eight Europa League fixtures this season, qualifiers included, and lost one, 1-0 at Kauno Žalgiris. The form data shows 15 goals scored and four conceded across those eight games, with five clean sheets. In the league phase they beat Marseille 4-1 at home on 17 September, then won 3-2 at Hoffenheim on 15 October. Oh Hyeon-Gyu has two goals in the competition this season, according to the top-scorer feed.

Crystal Palace have played two games in the competition. They beat Lech Poznan 4-0 at home, then lost 3-2 at Lyon on 15 October. Their recent-form aggregate shows 3.0 goals scored and 1.5 conceded per game, with an average of 14 shots per match against 51.5% possession. Their expected goals figures are 1.55 for and 2.05 against, which suggests the defensive record is the greater concern.

Neither supplied dataset indicates how much either side will rotate. Beşiktaş used a 4-1-4-1 in five of their eight games this season, so a settled shape is likely. Palace have started in a 3-4-3 and a 3-4-2-1 in their two matches, so they too have shown a back three. With only two league-phase games played by each side, neither has a fixture backlog to manage in the data. Palace's squad is thinner than it looks because four players are listed as off the roster and one more has a knee injury. That limits how many changes the visitors can make.

Beşiktaş (4-1-4-1): Nübel; Ouattara, Agbadou, Uduokhai, Topçu; Ndidi; Olaitan, Asllani, Hadžiahmetović, Trossard; Oh Hyeon-Gyu.

Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Benítez; Canvot, Richards, Mingueza; Mitchell, Wharton, Williams, Kamada; Pino, Sarr; Mateta.

The visitors' goalkeeper and defence depend on the three doubts, so the back line is the most uncertain part of both predicted XIs.

Kick-off is at 20:00 BST on Thursday 22 October 2026. The match is shown on TNT Sports where selected, though a specific channel has not been confirmed and this page will be updated closer to kick-off. This is a single league-stage fixture rather than a two-legged tie, and the league phase has no extra time or penalties, so a draw is a valid result.