Turkey and Greece, two countries with plenty of history between them, met on Thursday evening in a friendly game; as friendly as possible that is.
Team News
Senol Gunes, who is yet to take over as Turkey head coach officially on June 1st, was without midfielder Dorukhan Tokoz and striker Burak Yilmaz.
Ugurcan Cakir was in goal. Kaan Ayhan and Caglar Soyuncu formed the centre-back partnership, with Umut Neras and Nazim Sangare on either side. Okay Yokuslu and Ozan Tufan sat deep in midfield, while the trio of Cengiz Under, Yusuf Yazici and Cenk Tosun in support of Kenan Karaman upfront.
Angelos Anastasiadis was without captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos who played for Arsenal in the Europa League final the previous evening and wasn’t scheduled to join the team for a few days more.
Alexandros Paschalakis stood between the posts. Giorgios Valerianos and Dimitros Kourbelis paired up infront of him, with Leonardo Koutris on the left and Charalampos Mavrias on the right. Manolis Siopis and Andreas Samaris held the middle of the park, while Dimitrios Pelkas and Giorgos Masouras played wide. The duo of Konstantinos Fortounis and Efthimios Koulouris led the line upfront.
The First Half
The teams were feeling each other out early on, but it was the visitors with the first shot of the game as Fortunis tried his luck from range and hit the target, but his effort was too tame to trouble Cakir.
Turkey responded in a similar manner soon with Tosun’s blast from 20 yards saved by Paschalakis, and then they took control of possession and pushed forward.
They made their efforts count in the 11th minute. After combining nicely on the left flank, they played the ball into the middle where it was picked up by Cengiz Under. The AS Roma man struck it well from the edge of the box, beating Paschalakis.
1-0.
The Turks continued attacking and it took them only six minutes to double their lead. Greece made a rare move forward and it backfired immensely. They were quickly dispossessed and hit on the counterattack, which ended with Under finding Kenan Karaman inside the box who turned and fired into the bottom corner.
2-0.
Greece simply weren’t getting into the match at all. They seemed lazy and disinterested for the most part, never putting enough pressure on their opponents. They only occasionally managed to keep possession in the opposition half and move into the attacking third, and they weren’t creating any chances even then.
The visitors did manage to pick their game up slightly and push forward around the 25th minute, but there was no end-product whatsoever. Fortounis and Koulouris were mostly cut off upfront, and while the four midfielders looked capable of catching the eye individually, there was no fluency in their team play.
Meanwhile, Turkey were calm. They defended in numbers at that point and looked to attack quickly, and in the 32nd minute Tosun almost added a third as Meran ran on the overlap and squared it in for the Everton forward, but Paschalakis was up to the task that time.
The Turks hand another chance in the 39th minute through Yokuslu, whose header bounced off the bar and went over, and then a sudden opportunity came to Fortounis at the other end. The Greece captain was allowed to shoot free from just outside the box, but he missed the target by very little.
The Second Half
A few names changed at the start of the second half for both sides, but very little else did. Turkey continued dominating the game and with three minutes gone, they created a great chance for Tosun who ran in behind, received the ball off Under and forced a good save from Paschalakis.
Tosun soon went down injured soon afterwards, and Gunes had no reason to take any risks. Guven Yalcin came on, while Andreas Bouchalakis replaced Valerianos for Greece.
There was very little going on in the period that followed. Neither team seemed too interested in charging forward or felt any urgency to score. Turkey were still the team that knew what they want and went about it quietly, as if they were content with the lead they had earned in the opening 20 minutes. Greece, meanwhile, looked extremely unmotivated, even in possession.
There was, however, some excitement in the stadium 10 minutes from time as Under made way for the 38-year-old Emre Belozoglu, who immediately took the captain’s armband and made his 98th cap for Turkey.
Three minutes later, Emre was involved in a fantastic team buildup which ended with Yalcin firing low from around the penalty spot, but Paschalakis made a great save.
Towards the end of the game, Turkey tried to take advantage of the stupor their opponents seemed to have fallen into and they created a few half-chances, but none of them were made to count.
The Afterthought
Looking at it as a whole, this wasn’t a very good game of football. It was a proper friendly in terms of the lack of competitiveness from either side, especially Greece. Turkey occasionally showed glimpses of inspiration and that’s what brought them victory in the end, but the picture that it painted seems rather incomplete due to the lack of quality from the opposition. Cenk Tosun and Cengiz Under justified their reputation as players from top European leagues, but that was mostly it for this game.
Match Report
TURKEY: Cakir 7, Ayhan 7, Soyuncu 7, Sangare 7.5, Meras 6, Yokuslu 6.5 (61′ Tekdemir 6), Tufan 6.5 (46′ Ozyakup 6), Under 7.5 (80′ Belozoglu N/A), Yazici 7 (46′ Kahveci 6), Tosun 7.5 (56′ Yalcin 7), Karaman 7 (46′ Omur 6).
GREECE: Paschalakis 7.5, Valerianos 6 (54′ Bouchalakis 6), Kourbelis 7, Mavrias 5 (73′ Kotsiras 6), Koutris 5 (46′ Stafylidis 6), Siopis 5 (75′ Mantalos 6), Samaris 6, Pelkas 5.5 (46′ Kolovos 6), Masouras 5 (65′ Durmishaj 6), Fortounis 6.5, Koulouris 6.
GOALS: Under 11′, Karaman 17′.
YELLOW CARDS: Kourbelis 67′, Ozyakup 68′.
DATE & VENUE: May 30, 2019, Antalia Arena, Antalia, Turkey.
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