In recent years, the Turkish national team has been a bit of an enigma. They’ve got a top-quality squad filled with fantastic individual players; it’s just never really worked. Now, with Euro 2024 well underway, they’re finally living up to their perennial ‘dark horse’ title.
By Alex Roberts
Italian manager, Vincenzo Montella took over in 2023. He was well initiated with the culture having spent two years in charge of Adana Demispor, a move into international management came naturally to Montella.
In his very first game at the helm in October 2023, Montella led his team to a 1-0 win against Croatia. With hindsight, this may not seem so impressive considering the Croatian squad’s average age of 58(!), but it made people take notice.
Just three days later, Montella and Türkiye had qualified for Euro 2024 thanks to their comprehensive 4-0 win over Latvia. Having narrowly missed out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, things were looking up.
Tactically, Montella is one of the world’s last remaining flexible coaches. He has a preference for swift attacking football, utilising one-touch passing that can result in swift transitions and deadly counterattacks. If needs be though, he’s not afraid to mix things up and tailor his tactics to his opponents.
We may well be about to enter a new golden age of Turkish football. With the second youngest squad at the tournament, with an average age of just 25.8 years, this is one of the more exciting sets of players in the competition.
Real Madrid’s Arda Güler will get most of the headlines, and rightly so. The 19-year-old is one of the most impressive young players in the world, scoring six goals in just 12 appearances for the Spanish giants so far. Güler didn’t burst onto the scene, he exploded.
The ex-Fenerbahçe lad isn’t the only youngster making waves for Türkiye, on the opposite wing, they have the equally impressive Kenan Yıldız. After a breakthrough season at Juventus, the Old Lady have hedged their bets on Yıldız and plan to make him an integral part of the club’s future.
Of course, the proclivities of youth sometimes need to be reined in by a cooler head, and they don’t get much cooler than that of Hakan Çalhanoğlu.
Coming off the back of yet another impressive Serie A campaign with Inter, Çalhanoğlu is the elder statesman of this Türkiye side. He’s one of those rare players that seem to slow down time whenever he’s on the ball. With the ability to pick out a pass and a deadly knack for banging in freekicks, he’s still Türkiye’s main man.
In their first game of the tournament, Türkiye faced the people’s darlings, Georgia. It was arguably the best game of the group stages. It was Georgia’s first game at a major international final, unfortunately for them, Türkiye didn’t care.
It was a game full of stunners. Türkiye took the lead in the 25th minute when Mert Müldür, scored his second international goal with a stunning volley into the top corner. Turkish fans at the Westfalenstadion went wild when they thought their team had doubled their lead two minutes later, only for Yıldız’s goal to be ruled out for offside by VAR.
Georgia made history when Georges Mikautadze cleverly flicked a shot past Mert Günok at the near post, scoring his country’s first ever major tournament goal. Fans were in tears of joy, but it didn’t last long.
Güler, who else, curled a magnificent effort from outside the box to give Türkiye a 2-1 lead midway through the second half, making him the youngest player to score on his Euros debut, breaking the record set by none other than Cristiano Ronaldo in 2004.
Georgia came close to equalizing several times – Giorgi Kochorashvili hit the crossbar and missed a close-range shot, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia struck the post, and Samet Akaydin made a crucial goal-line block.
In the dying moments, with Georgia’s goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili up for a corner, Türkiye counter attacked and Kerem Aktürkoğlu scored into an empty net, securing a thrilling Group F victory.
Türkiye’s tails were up as they went into their next game against Portugal. Ronaldo and co failed to impress despite their 2-1 victory against Czechia in their opening game. It was meant to be a good time for Türkiye to play them, but they were vastly outclassed.
Güler and Yıldız were inexplicably benched by Montella for the game against Portugal. Without their rapid one-touch football and creative sparks, the Seleção were able to dominate from the start.
A slick move down the left saw Nuno Mendes’ cross deflect kindly into the path of Silva, who swept the ball home from inside the area for his first goal at a major tournament.
Despite their intricate passing play, Portugal’s second goal came in comical fashion. João Cancelo’s attempted pass to Ronaldo was intercepted by Akaydin, but the defender’s blind back pass went past Altay Bayındır, resulting in the sixth own goal of Euro 2024.
The Seleção extended their lead 10 minutes into the second half, capitalizing on more poor defending from Vincenzo Montella’s side.A simple ball over the top found Ronaldo, who was played onside by Zeki Çelik. With the goal at his mercy, Ronaldo unselfishly squared the ball for Fernandes to tap home.
Despite the defeat to Portugal, Türkiye still looked set to qualify for the next round following Georgia and Czechia’s 1-1 draw. So long as they didn’t lose, they’d be in the last 16 for sure.
Çalhanoğlu’s first major tournament goal put Montella’s men ahead after Antonín Barák was sent off early on. Not long after, however, Tomáš Souček equalised for a Czechia side that needed all three points.
In the end, substitute and Everton fan favourite Cenk Tosun had the final word, scoring into the bottom corner on the 94th minute. The match ended with ugly scenes as Tomáš Chorý received a red card following a feisty encounter in Hamburg.
Usually, finishing second in the group stage means you’re like to get a tougher draw in the next round, that wasn’t the case this time. Türkiye got lucky, and ended up in the nicer half, missing out on teams like Germany, Spain, and France.
That’s not to take anything away from Austria. Ralf Rangnick and his team may have lost their opener against France thanks to a Max Wöber own goal, but after impressive victories against Poland and the Netherlands, they ended up deserved winners of Group D.
It was dubbed ‘the battle of the dark horses’. Both Türkiye and Austria had received plaudits for playing entertaining football in what’s been a relatively boring tournament so far. It was a genuine shame that one of them had to go out.
It started with a bang. Centre-back Merih Demiral scored with just 57 seconds on the clock following some goalkeeping heroics from Patrick Pentz to turn away a deflection from Güler’s corner. Pentz could do nothing about Demiral’s point-blank finish.
Austria weren’t out of it though. Christoph Baumgartner nearly responded immediately, weaving his way to the edge of the area before sending a right-footed shot just wide of Mert Günok’s left-hand post.
Moments later, Baumgartner had another chance when Demiral failed to clear Romano Schmid’s corner, but the stretching Austria forward couldn’t get the decisive touch at the back post.
Türkiye fans and players alike could finally take a breather on the 59th minute when Demiral scored his and their second goal. Again, it came from one of Güler’s set pieces, although this time it landed right on Demiral’s bonce, no deflection needed.
The reprieve didn’t last very long. Austria got one back through SC Freiburg forward Michael Gregoritsch on the 66th minute to set up a tense final half an hour. The Austrians kept coming, but thanks to some fine goalkeeping from Günok, they were unable to break through and Türkiye are now set to face the Netherlands in the quarter finals.
Euro 2024 has been a mixed bag for Ronald Koeman and his side. They were lucky to qualify from their group, reaching the last 16 after been one of the best third placed teams. One day they’ll get beaten by Austria, the next they’ll absolutely batter Romania.
Cody Gakpo is having the tournament of his life, and young Xavi Simons is showing exactly why he’s regarded as one of the best young players in the world. Regardless of which Dutch side turn up, the good, the bad, or the ugly, Türkiye will have to be at their best to beat them.
After that, who knows? On their side of the draw, the only real heavy hitters have been England, and they’ve not exactly set the tournament alight. Should they get passed a decent Switzerland side and Türkiye beat the Dutch, there is no reason Montella and his youngsters shouldn’t fancy their chances.
There is still a long way to go but with many of the big sides faltering, perhaps this is the year a dark horse finally wins a major tournament again. They don’t get much dark horsey-er than Türkiye.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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