Is Turkey the dark horse of the Euro? It has a very high quality squad

Already on Friday, a holiday for all football fans and enthusiasts will begin. Europe’s best national teams will take part in Euro 2020. The biggest favourites are, as is tradition, England, Germany, France and Portugal, the defending champions from 2016. It won’t be about any of them this time though, as we now look at Turkey and their potential chance of success.

Turkey has been a somewhat overlooked team for a few years now due to their inconsistency of play. But let’s take it one at a time. Turkey finished 2nd in qualifying, which guaranteed them direct qualification to the Euros.

It was in the group with France, but it never lost to them and even managed to beat them. It is also worth mentioning that in the whole qualification (10 matches) the Turks only got three goals.

Turkey’s nomination for the Euros also includes a trio of seasoned Lille players, starting with Zeki Celik, who had the season of his life in Lille. Thanks to him, Lille managed to win the title and thus break the dominance of PSG.

The Turkish national team can also rely on their striker Burak Yilmaz. Even at 35 years old, he is proving that he is one of the top strikers. This trio is completed by Yusuf Yazici, who has also had a great season in Lille.

An interesting fact is that the Turks are taking the youngest squad of all the teams to the Euros.

Coach Gunes can also count on talented defender Caglar Soyuncu, who is known for his sturdy physique, which is often a source of fear, and like the previous players, he can also boast an admirable season.

He will be complemented in defence by Merih Demiral, who is slowly but surely making his way into the Juventus starting line-up.

Turkey have Italy in their group for the Euros, with whom they will start their opening game, followed by Wales and Switzerland. Coach Gunes’ charges have a particularly good defence, supported by the well-playing Burak Yilmaz and several other great footballers.

It could be said that the Turks are the dark horse of this year’s Euros. If they don’t burn out like they did in the Nations League, from which they were relegated to League C, they could easily peek into the quarter-finals. They play their first match on 11.6.

Source: UEFA