MONTELLA ERA IN NATIONAL TEAM: ITALY MATCH CRITICAL TURN

Vincenzo Montella's Turkey National Football Team career follows a highly fluctuating course. The Italian coach, who previously managed the Adana Demirspor team successfully in Turkey, started his adventure in the national team with an unforgettable Croatia victory. Following this glorious start, Montella carried the team to the 2024 European Championship. The experienced coach, who showed the success of playing the quarter-finals in the tournament held in Germany, bid farewell to the organization with a 2-1 defeat against the Netherlands. However, the real big disappointment occurred in the 2026 World Cup. Turkey could not get out of the group containing the United States, Paraguay, and Australia and said goodbye to the tournament very early. After this major failure, Montella's future began to be discussed fiercely. The head coach, who is at the focus of criticisms, also made a very bad start to the UEFA Nations League adventure and the team lost 1-0 to the visiting France team at home in the first match. Montella, who managed exactly 37 matches at the head of the team so far, caught a 1.84 points average by getting 21 wins, 5 draws, and 11 defeats in this process. Although he does not draw a bad picture statistically, recent tournament performances consumed his credit greatly. The experienced coach now takes his 38th match in his Turkey career against his own country Italy. Turkey, which could not defeat its rival in its history yet, puts up a great struggle on the pitch to get its first victory in this match to be played in Bursa. The national footballers look for a victory to reduce the pressure on their head coach and to come to an assertive position in the group. The football federation management evaluates Montella's performance closely. A possible bad result endangers the Italian coach's seat in the national team seriously. Turkey sweats to beat its bad luck on this historic evening.

IMAGE: HURRIYET