Türkiye eyes win over Portugal to advance at Euros

DORTMUND

The top two teams in Group F, Türkiye and Portugal, meet in Dortmund on June 22 knowing that victory for either could send it through as the section winner.

Both teams picked up three points in frenetic fashion in their first outings, Türkiye seeing off Georgia in perhaps the game of the tournament so far and Portugal mounting a late recovery to overcome the Czech Republic.

Türkiye entered Euro 2024 on the back of a five-game winless run in all competitions and it had also lost the opening match in each of its previous five European Championship appearances, but the country kick-started its campaign with a stylish victory over Georgia.

However, coach Vincenzo Montella admitted after the match that his side must be "more accurate" in front of goal as it "won't always be able to afford to miss so many" goalscoring opportunities in future games: Türkiye had the most shots at goal as a team in the first round games with 22, one more than the Netherlands, and also had the highest expected goals (xG), a measure of how promising their chances were, with 2.62.

All eyes will be on Türkiye’s star wingers Arda Güler of Real Madrid and Juventus’ Kenan Yıldız, who were electric on June 18’s 3-1 win over Georgia when they became the first 19-year-olds to start alongside each other in a Euro game in 60 years.

Older than both players combined, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is always one to watch: He has netted against 47 different international teams but never Türkiye. At the age of 39, the star striker will be looking to become the oldest goalscorer in European Championship history.

Ranked 40th in the world by FIFA, Türkiye has lost only two of its last 15 competitive games, winning 10 of them, and can secure its spot in the last 16 of Euro 2024 with a victory on June 22, although it has never beaten Portugal at the European Championship, failing to score on all three occasions.

Portugal forward Diogo Jota, who has come back from a knee injury and has not played a full game in four months, expects a different challenge against Türkiye compared to the opening match against the Czech Republic.

"If we can impose our game like we did against the Czech Republic, it will be good for us,” Jota said.

“Because Türkiye is not used to sitting back and defending. If we can implement what we want, we can get three points and qualify from the group."

The Liverpool player also acknowledged the individual talent in the Turkish squad.

"I think Türkiye has great players at the individual level, therefore, we cannot give them too much space,” he said.

“We have to control the game well and not give them the time they need to make a difference."

Also on June 22, Belgium will be out to avoid an embarrassing early exit from Euro 2024 as the serial underachiever faces a crunch clash with Romania.

After a shock 1-0 loss to Slovakia in their Group E opener, Domenico Tedesco's men will be pushed to the brink of elimination if they suffer a second successive defeat in Cologne.

Belgium will be unable to finish in the top two if it loses to Romania and Ukraine does not beat Slovakia, with its hopes of going through as one of the four best third-placed teams also extremely slim.

Slovakia's unexpected victory blew Group E wide open, just hours after Romania beat Ukraine 3-0 in the other match in that pool.