Turkey vs Portugal Preview

Turkey and Portugal will battle for Group F supremacy when they face each other this Saturday at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund.

Turkey recorded a 3-1 win over Georgia in their opening game ending a run of five games without a win for the Turks. Although the scoreline suggests that they claimed the three points with relative ease, that was far from the reality on the ground as Vincenzo Montella’s side were made to work extremely hard and needed two top goals to win the game. But regardless of how the points arrived, they’ll be pleased they’re now on the brink of reaching a European Championships knockout stage for the first time since 2008 and a win here is what they need to guarantee that.

However, they’ve never beaten Portugal at a European Championships finals (L3). In fact, they’ve failed to score in all three of those games. Yet, given that they have scored at least once in eleven of their last 13 internationals, they must surely believe they can at least end their H2H goal drought at the Euros.

Like their opponents, Portugal were made to sweat for their opening game win over the Czech Republic with a late goal by Francisco Conceição sparing their blushes on an uninspiring night. Boss Roberto Martínez insisted his side “controlled the game” and, as such, were ultimately worthy winners. However, he’ll be a little concerned to see that his defence, who kept nine clean sheets from ten games in qualifying, have now conceded in five of their last six games.

Nevertheless, a win here is all that matters as it will see them safely through to the knockouts. But matchday two has been a struggle for Portugal in recent editions as they’ve failed to win either of their second group games at the last two European Championships (D1, L1). Yet, Portugal ought to be confident of turning that around here as they haven’t lost at a European Championships finals to a nation ranked outside FIFA’s current top-20 since Greece beat them in the 2004 final.