TURKEY THRIVING
AS GUNES TURNS
TO YOUTH
T
urkey are thriving under Senol
Gunes, who was reappointed
in June as national coach –
15 years after he left the post,
having led Turkey to a best-ever third
place at the World Cup in 2002.
Gunes has called on youngsters to
reinvigorate the side. And with Cengiz
Under (22) and Yusuf Yazici (22) leading
the attack – and joined by midfielders
Dorukhan Tokoz (23) and Irfan Kahveci
(24), and defenders Merih Demiral (21)
and Kaan Ayhan (24), the average age
of the side has plummeted.
The Turks won their first three
qualifiers, including a 2-0 win over world
champions France, before a surprise
loss to Iceland in Reykjavik. The game
in Iceland took place amid tensions
between the two nations after Turkey
complained of being made to wait
for three hours at passport control at
Keflavik Airport a day earlier and being
subjected to bag searches.
Wins over Andorra, thanks to a last-
minute header from Ozan Tufan, and
Moldova confirmed their top spot ahead
of France on head-to-head record.
The world champions put 19 goals past
Moldova, Iceland, Andorra and Albania,
but the 2-0 defeat to Turkey in Konya in
June was a setback. “When you play like
that on a collective level there’s nothing
positive to take from the game,” coach
Didier Deschamps said afterwards.
“That was a slap in the face for us and
there’s not a lot I can say. We didn’t play
the way we should have against a team
which played the way it likes to.”
Iceland, under new Swedish coach Eric
Hamrun but with virtually the same side
that competed at Euro 2016 and the
2018 World Cup, beat Turkey 2-1 with
both of their goals coming from Ragnar
Sigurdsson headers.
They are in danger of missing out on
automatic qualification after suffering a
comprehensive loss to France and, in
their most recent match, losing 4-2 to
Albania, but could yet find a way through
to the finals via the play-offs.
Albania fired Christian Panucci inSTAR MAN
CENGIZ UNDER
Tu r ke y
In a qualification process that has turned
out much more rewarding than anyone
thought possible for Turkey, the Roma
winger has been the meteor which fizzes
across the heavens.
Because of injury problems, the
22-year-old has only appeared in one
preliminary tie, but what a 90 minutes
it was as the tyro with the dancing feet
played a starring role in the 2-0 homeMarch after losing their opening game
to Turkey. He was replaced by fellow
Italian Eduardo Reja, but the mixed
results have continued.
A 4-1 loss to France at Stade de
France, before which Albania’s players
had to endure the wrong anthem being
played, was followed a few days later by a
4-2 triumph over Iceland. Captain Elseid
Hysaj scored his first international goal
after a back-heel set-up by Rey Manaj,
who was one of six changes Reja made
to the starting line-up.
Moldova parted company with coach
Alexandru Spiridon after losing to Albaniain June. But his replacement Seman
Altman has fared no better, with the team
going down 3-0 to Iceland and 4-0 in
Turkey in their September matches.
Andorra, with six defeats from six
games, have failed to win or draw a
single game since they first entered
the European Championship qualifiers
in the late 1990s.EURO 2020 | Qualifiers
GROUP
H“When you play like that on a collective
level there’s nothing positive to take from
the game. That was a slap in the face for
us and there’s not a lot I can say”
France coach Didier Deschamps after the 2-0 loss to Turkey
On target...Kingsley Coman scores for France against Albania