FORMER Roma and Italy striker Vincenzo Montella has taken to international management like a duck to water.
His new Turkey side topped their qualification group ahead of Croatia and Wales.
Goals might be a problem – they only scored seven in the six matches excluding the wins over Latvia.
Montella inherited a side that was in a funk after missing out on Qatar after a play-off defeat in Portugal, so revenge could be in the air.
There was plenty of frustration in Turkey when they went out pointless from Euro 2020 – but they might be dark horses to make a run to the last eight or even further.
Manager: Vincenzo Montella
Roma legend was known as the Little Aeroplane due to his goal celebration.
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Briefly rocked up at Fulham in 2007.
Has managed Fiorentina, AC Milan and Sevilla.
Key man: Hakan Calhanoglu
Inter Milan star crossed the San Siro divide so returning to the land of his birth in Turkey kit will not be a problem.
Will be his team’s dead-ball threat.
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Likely line-up
How they attack
Turkey consistently come into major international tournaments as dark horses, with many tipping them to do well.
This year appears to be no different and given that they are in a group with Portugal, Czech Republic and Georgia – they will be confident of reaching at least the knockout stage.
Turkey have a modern and patient approach to the initial build-up and they look to make sure they have at least one extra player in build-up to allow them to play through the pressure.
This tends to mean that one of the deeper midfielders in their 4-2-3-1 will drop back in.
When Turkey build their attack they are patient in creating the correct shape to play through the thirds – but then aggressive when the attacking passing lanes open up.
As they move into the middle they will use longer passes into wide areas where their wide attackers and full-backs look to overload the opposition.
As they break into the final third, Turkey are then aggressive with the movement of their front four and try to create overloads within the penalty area.
How they defend
Turkey are aggressive in their positioning as they look to defend in the first instance in either a medium or high defensive block.
They will be compact against the ball in these situations and they will look to cut off the centre of the pitch and to force the opposition to play wide.
Turkey have a lot of experienced and physical players who understand how to act in pressing traps like this to force a mistake from the opposition.
This is part of the reason that their higher defensive block can be effective, even against good teams.
They are compact and aggressive in the way that they look to force mistakes early in the opposition attack.
When Turkey work and press they are compact with no space between their lines of attackers and midfielders.
But even when they do become spread out they are still difficult to play through centrally.
Opposition teams will generally have to be direct and aggressive in terms of playing wide or long quickly to turn the Turkish defensive block around.
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Prediction
Turkey should make into the knockout rounds – but with them most likely to come second or third in their group – getting deep in the tournament may be tough with England and France possible opponents.
Latest odds
William Hill have them as 8/11 to finish in the top two of the group. They are 50/1 to go all the way.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
