The top two teams in Group F, Türkiye and Portugal, meet in Dortmund on June 22 knowing that victory for either could send it through as the section winner, APA reports citing Hurriyet.
Both teams picked up three points in frenetic fashion in their first outings, Türkiye seeing off Georgia in perhaps the game of the tournament so far and Portugal mounting a late recovery to overcome the Czech Republic.
Türkiye entered Euro 2024 on the back of a five-game winless run in all competitions and it had also lost the opening match in each of its previous five European Championship appearances, but the country kick-started its campaign with a stylish victory over Georgia.
However, coach Vincenzo Montella admitted after the match that his side must be "more accurate" in front of goal as it "won't always be able to afford to miss so many" goalscoring opportunities in future games: Türkiye had the most shots at goal as a team in the first round games with 22, one more than the Netherlands, and also had the highest expected goals (xG), a measure of how promising their chances were, with 2.62.
All eyes will be on Türkiye’s star wingers Arda Güler of Real Madrid and Juventus’ Kenan Yıldız, who were electric on June 18’s 3-1 win over Georgia when they became the first 19-year-olds to start alongside each other in a Euro game in 60 years.
Older than both players combined, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is always one to watch: He has netted against 47 different international teams but never Türkiye. At the age of 39, the star striker will be looking to become the oldest goalscorer in European Championship history.
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