UEFA EURO 2020 NATION PRESENTATION: TURKEY

 

NICKNAME: Ay-Yıldızlılar / The Crescent-Stars

MANAGER: Senol Gunes

Most successful manager in Turkey history is Senol Gunes. He led them to 3rd place in the 2002 WC. Gunes played as a goalkeeper for almost all career in Trabzonspor. 31 matches for the national team. From 1988 Gunes works as manager. He managed many teams in the Turkey league. This is his second stint as a national team manager.

MOST CAPS: Rustu Recber- 120 caps from 1994 to 2012

TOP SCORER: Hakan Sukur- 51 goal from 1992 to 2007

HOST NATION: -

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD: 5th EURO for Turkey. 

BEST RESULT: Turkey's best result is the semi-final in 2008 where they had several amazing wins or they have been really lucky. They were in group A with Portugal, Czech Republic and co-hosts Switzerland. Portugal was better than them in the first match. Turkey made great turnovers in the next two matches. First they were 1-0 down from co-hosts but managed to win it with Turan's goal in the last minute of the match. In the last group match Turkey was even 2-0 down but was lucky again or they didn't give up as they beat Czech 3-2 with two late goals from Nihat Kahveci. We saw another drama in the quarter-final against Croatia. Klasnić gave Croatia the lead in 119 min of extra time. Everybody thought it was over but Turks disagreed with that. Semih Senturk scored a last minute equaliser. Croatian players were in shock and Turkey won it on PKs. It wasn't over yet as Turkey faced Germany in the semi-final. Turks were in the result deficit two times (0-1 and 1-2). Again Semih scored an equalizer, this time in 86 minute of the match. Turkish luck stopped here as Germany scored a last minute winner.