(Football news) A few hours before Portugal pulled off a 2-1 comeback victory over Czech Republic, both teams secured all three points in their opening match against tournament newcomers Georgia. Turkey advanced with a 3-1 score.
Turkey had lost the opening game of each of their previous five European Championship appearances coming into Euro 2024, and they had a winless streak of five games in all competitions. However, they celebrated a stylish victory over Georgia on Monday to begin their campaign at the tournament this summer.
After Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze cancelled out Mert Muldur’s sweetly-struck opener in the first half, Real Madrid starlet Arda Guler announced himself on the continental stage with a memorable 65th-minute strike, becoming the fifth-youngest scorer in Euros history (19 years, 114 days) and the first teenager to score on his Euros debut since Cristiano Ronaldo back in 2004.
Kerem Akturkoglu then came off the substitutes’ bench to slot home a third for Turkey deep into stoppage time to wrap up all three points, with head coach Vincenzo Montella celebrating his 50th birthday in joyous fashion.
However, Montella admitted after the match that his side must be “more accurate” in front of goal as they “won’t always be able to afford to miss so many” goalscoring opportunities in future games – Turkey registered just eight of their 22 shots on target.
Ranked 40th in the world by FIFA, Turkey have lost only two of their last 15 competitive games (W10 D3) and can secure their spot in the last 16 of Euro 2024 with a victory on Saturday, although they have never beaten Portugal at the European Championship, failing to score on all three occasions.
After going through Euro 2024 qualifying with a perfect record of 10 wins from 10 games, Portugal were starring down the barrel of defeat in their opening Group F fixture on Monday when Czech Republic took a surprise lead midway through the second half.
Lukas Provod expertly curled a superb long-range strike in off the far post in the 62nd minute, but Czechia’s lead lasted only seven minutes as goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek could only parry Nuno Mendes’s header against Robin Hranac and watch the ball bounce into his net.
Portugal then snatched all three points courtesy of a dramatic 92nd-minute winner from substitute Francisco Conceicao, who scored just three minutes after coming off the bench to make his competitive debut, netting 24 years after his father and ex-Porto boss Sergio Conceicao scored a hat-trick against Germany at Euro 2000.
Both Ronaldo and Pepe broke European Championship records in a memorable victory for Portugal, and a “deserved” one according to manager Roberto Martinez, who was pleased with the reaction of his players after going a goal behind in a “tough” opening contest against Czechia.
Sitting level on points with Turkey at the top of Group F, Portugal have kept only one clean sheet in their last six international matches, which will be a slight cause for concerns for Martinez. However, A Selecao should be confident of success on Saturday as they have won each of their last six competitive meetings with Turkey, scoring at least twice on four of those occasions.
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