Arda Güler: We knew that centred balls can be very dangerous for Austria

Turkey is continuing its spirited ride through the European Championships. In the eighth round, it took Austria by surprise, with two goals from defender Merih Demiral. in Saturday’s quarter-final, the tough Netherlands await the Turkish team.

Turkey advanced from Group F with six points. In addition to the win against Georgia, the team of the experienced coach Ivan Hasek also scored a scalp, falling only to the group leader Portugal.

Austria, on the other hand, surprisingly topped Group D. Already in the opening match against France, they showed great potential, but it was not enough to score points. This came only in the duels with Poland and the Netherlands and six points were enough to advance from first place.

Coach Ralf Rangnick’s charges entered the eight-final match as the paper favourites. However, they conceded in the first minute after a penalty area scramble, with Merih Demiral scoring the first goal of the match.

Austria then took the match into their own hands, but it was not enough to equalise. On the other hand, another hard blow came in the 59th minute when the 26-year-old Turkish stopper added a second goal.

Despite their huge advantage, Austria could only manage a cosmetic adjustment to the scoreline in the rest of the match, with substitute Michael Gregoritsch beating the opposing goalkeeper in the 66th minute.

“I am very happy that we won today. Merih scored twice, he has a great jump. Of course we analysed the opponent’s play before the game and we knew that centred balls can be very dangerous,” said Arda Güler, only 19 years old and a rising star of Real Madrid, after the game.

Turkey thus probably provided the biggest surprise of the eight-final. They will face the Netherlands on Saturday 6 July at 21:00 in the battle for promotion to the top four and will once again enter the match as the underdogs.

Source: UEFA, EURO 2024