EM 2012: Secret favorite ?: The terrifyingly weak game of Turkey

Stand: 11:49 a.m.| Reading time: 3 minutes

“Get us the trophy”, headlined the newspaper “Hürryet” on the morning of the opening game and wanted to incite the Turkish national team to great deeds. And President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted: “I’m very excited. I know we are all excited. Today our guys are going to the field in Euro2020. “

However, the euphoria had sunk to zero a few hours later. 0: 3 (0: 0) the Turks went under in the opening game of the EM against Italy. A result that was fully deserved even at this level. The team, traded as a secret favorite, delivered a terrible game despite the home game atmosphere, for which thousands of Turkish spectators in Rome provided. The questionable match schedule, which midfielder Karaman later described bluntly (“We tried to keep the zero”), only lasted for one half. And only with luck.

All games, dates and results can be found in our 2021 European Championship schedule (also as a PDF for printing).

The players of coach Senol Günes were desperate in the back, did nothing offensively for 90 minutes and also made serious defensive blunders against strong Italians. “They were technically and tactically much better than us. We made life easier for them by losing the ball, ”said Günes.

“Perhaps that rather inhibited the Turks”, said Michael Ballack on MagentaTV about the support from the stands: “At least that’s what it looked like. They were already impressed. Maybe there was a bit of inexperience involved. The pressure might have been a little too big after all. You actually didn’t manage to break free for the entire 90 minutes. “

“They completely disappointed me”

The numbers impressively support this assessment. In the end there were 24: 3 shots on goal for Italy with 63 percent possession of the ball. This is of particular concern, as the defense in qualifying was the showpiece of the team. In a total of ten games, Turkey only conceded three goals – just as many as on that evening in Rome.

“Opening game nightmare,” commented the Cumhuriyet newspaper. Other Turkish media wrote of “hara-kiri” and “frustration”. Hertha board member Fredi Bobic, also an expert in the TV studio, saw it in a similarly drastic way: “The Turks were actually a bit of my secret favorite, they completely disappointed me.”

The European Championship is of course not over for Turkey, after all, opponents Italy are one of the big favorites to win the tournament. Now the team is under enormous pressure in the next game against Wales on Wednesday. But it is still too early to speak of a final, said Karaman: “Everything is still possible.”

This is how the “Hürryet” saw it the day after the game, who wrote of an “unfortunate start” and concluded: “Forget this game and look ahead.”