The decision of the Turkish National Team coach, Vincenzo Montella, to substitute Arda Guler resulted in a 0-3 defeat to Portugal on the second matchday of Group F Euro 2024. Montella finally explained that the reason for not playing Guler from the first minute was because the Real Madrid player was not in excellent condition.
Turkey had to suffer a crushing 0-3 defeat to Portugal at the Signal Iduna Park Stadium, Dortmund, Germany, Saturday (22/6/2024. The three goals against them were scored by Bernardo Silva (21′), Samet Akaydin’s own goal (28′), and Bruno Fernandes (55′).
Interestingly, Montella made several changes to their first eleven from the previous match. A quite striking change is backing up Guler. In fact, the 19 year old player appeared charming and scored a beautiful goal in the 3-1 win over Georgia on the first matchday.
In the match against Portugal, Guler was only introduced in the 70th minute. But Montella also had no reason not to field his new player from the early minutes. In fact, he had the initial intention of not wanting to play the Real Madrid star.
“Arda is not fit to play. I can say clearly he cannot play more than 30 minutes without increasing the risk. “There was also the temptation not to put him in 20 minutes before the end, but in the end I gave in because good players have to be played,” said Montella, quoted from Reuters, Sunday (23/6/2024).
Montella can judge that Guler is not in top condition because he has not missed his playing time with Real Madrid. He said, a tournament with a short recovery time like this requires a ready physical and mental condition. However, he admitted that his team had a high fighting spirit.
“We often forget that most of our footballers are not used to playing with continuity at their clubs and I’m talking about one game a week. When you play once every four days, it’s another sport you need to do. “You need to be physically fit, you have to be ready,” he explained.
“Arda is a great and intelligent man, he is very passionate about his country, proud of his country. But even though he knows that he risks injury by playing, he wants to be on the field,” said Montella.
Regarding the match, Montella felt that Türkiye actually played well from the start. But he couldn’t deny that Akaydin’s own goal caused his squad’s playing rhythm to shake, causing them to lose to Portugal.
“We started well in the first 20 minutes or so and we had our own chances, but we couldn’t make the most of them. “We were punished at the first mistake,” he said.
“But it was an even match until the goal. Our second goal was very unlucky, these things happen in football and it changes the balance. “I think, throughout the match we played on par with one of the best teams in Europe, sometimes we lacked courage, maybe because we felt too much in this match,” said Montella.
Even though they lost, Türkiye still had a chance to qualify for the round of 16. If they want to qualify, Montella’s troops must achieve victory against the Czech Republic at the Volksparkstadion on Thursday 27 June. The reason is that they are currently sitting in second place in Group F with three points, two points ahead of the Czech Republic and Georgia.
