A National Football Team will face Italy in a special match tomorrow in Konya. The fight to be played at Konya Metropolitan Municipality Stadium will start at 21.45 and will be broadcast live on TRT Spor.
While Burak Yılmaz, who announced that he had put an end to his national team career in the crescent-star team, was not included in the squad, the German-born player Salih Özcan, who preferred Turkey for the national team, was included in the candidate squad.
In the semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup European Qualifications play-off tour, Turkey lost its World Cup chance by losing 3-1 away to Portugal and 1-0 to North Macedonia on the field in Italy.
MATCH 6 WITH STEFAN KUNTZ
Turkey will play its 6th match against Italy under the management of German coach Stefan Kuntz. While the national team won 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat in 5 matches with Kuntz, they aired the opponent’s nets 12 times and scored 6 goals in their castle.
The crescent-star team, which drew 1-1 with Norway in the first match played under the administration of Kuntz, beat Latvia 2-1 away in the second match and 6-0 against Gibraltar in the third match on the field.
In the last match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup European Qualification Group G with Stefan Kuntz, the national team defeated Montenegro 2-1 on the road and earned the right to participate in the play-off semi-finals. The crescent-star team lost 3-1 to Portugal in the play-off round semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup European Qualifications, their first defeat under Kuntz’s management.
THE SECOND MATCH IN 2022
The Nationals will play their second match in 2022 with the fight against Italy. While the crescent-star team won 8 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses in 16 matches played last year, they scored 32 goals in these matches and could not prevent 25 goals in their goal.
TURKEY ATTENDING THE 604TH MATCH
A National Football Team will take the field for the 604th time in its history with the Italy match. Crescent-Stars have played 603 matches, 327 of which are official and 276 of which are private, in their 99-year history and experienced 230 wins, 144 draws and 229 defeats, one of which was forfeit.
The national team scored 808 goals in total, 258 away, 262 at home, and 83 on the neutral ground, 3 of which were forfeited, and 865 goals were scored in the goal.
Competing with the national teams of 90 different countries to date, the national teams made 520 of 603 matches with representatives of Europe, 33 of them from Asia, 23 of them from America, 24 of them from Africa and 3 of them with Oceania.
The Nationals won their only forfeited victory in 603 matches against Greece. The special match between Turkey and Greece, held on 17 November 2015 at Başakşehir Fatih Terim Stadium, ended 0-0. Six months after this match, FIFA registered the match 3-0 in favor of Turkey on the grounds that Greece played illegal football players.
On the other hand, the special match that Turkey played with Kosovo on May 21, 2014 and won 6-1 away, was not taken into consideration because Kosovo was not a member of UEFA and FIFA at that time.
CANDIDATE STAFF
The following names are included in the candidate squad of the A National Team:
Goalkeepers: Altay Bayindir, Sinan Bolat, Uğurcan Cakir
Defense: Zeki Celik, Mert Müldür, Caglar Soyuncu, Kaan Ayhan, Merih Demiral, Ozan Kabak, Serdar Aziz, Caner Erkin, Ridvan Yilmaz
Midfielder/Forward: Abdülkadir Ömür, Cengiz Ünder, Yunus Akgün, Berkan Kutlu, Dorukhan Toköz, Orkun Kökçü, Taylan Antalyalı, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Yusuf Yazıcı, Doğukan Sinik, Salih Özcan, Kerem Aktürkoğlu, Enes Ünal, Serdar Dursun, Umut Bozok.