About the Tournament
The UEFA European Championship 2024, commonly known as Euro 2024, took place in Germany and hosted many successful football teams as well as high numbers of fans, coming to the cities of Germany, such as Berlin and Leipzig, just to spectate the matches first hand. It is one of the most well-known football tournaments and it attracts millions of fans every 4 years since 1960. Every four years, just like the World Cup, the Euro awakens the feeling inside of the supporters, giving them a reason to enjoy every upcoming night.
Every country is working hard to create and form the best team possible from their citizens in the age range of 16 to 41. At the age of 16, Lamine Yamal from the Spanish National Team, scored a goal against the French National Team in the semi-finals that took place on July 9th 2024. And, 41-year-old Pepe was the oldest of the tournament as the captain of the Portuguese National Team.
Some Statistics About the Tournament
After the group matches, 16 teams qualified for the round of 16. On June 29th Italy and Germany, on June 30th England and Spain, on July 1st France and Portugal, on July 2nd the Netherlands and Türkiye qualified to the quarter finals.
In the following days, Spain won the match over the host, Germany, who did not have to enter the elimination stage of the qualification for Euro 2024, France won over Portugal on penalties, England won over Switzerland on penalties and Netherlands won over Türkiye.
In the semi final that took place on July 9th between Spain and France, Spain became the winner and is waiting for its rival in the finals stage that will be selected from the match between England and Netherlands.
The Turkish National Team
Coming to the Turkish National Team, we had very young players who had the chance to play in the matches as well; Semih Kılıçsoy, 18, Kenan Yıldız and Arda Güler, 19, were some of the youngest players of Euro 2024.
The team captain was Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who is currently a player in Inter Milan, and to many, he was a really successful captain in collaboration and getting the team together. Vincenzo Montella, the Italian coach, led our team from September 2023.
Coming to the matches that we took part in, the team was a part of Group F, on behalf of Portugal, Georgia and Czechia. We only lost the match we had with Portugal and ended the group matches as the second. In the elimination rounds, we had matches with Austria and then Netherlands. Afterwards the friendly that the team had with Austria in march ended in favor of the Austrian team with a score of 6-1. We, as the citizens, were supposed to be doubtful about the game. However, with the trust we gained with our national team, all of the fans were quite sure about our victory, and it was the result. We won the match 2 - 1 and qualified for the quarter finals.
The Quarter Finals
The match was officiated by the French referee Clement Turpin and Türkiye started the match with Mert Günok, Mert Müldür, Samet Akaydın, Abdülkerim Bardakcı, Ferdi Kadıoğlu, Kaan Ayhan, Salih Özcan, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Kenan Yıldız, Barış Alper Yılmaz, Arda Güler.
Unfortunately, we lost the match against Netherlands 2 - 1, even though we started with an advantage with the goal of Samet Akaydın, who scored an own goal in the match we had against Portugal and faced a lot of criticism. Stefan De Vrij scored a goal for his team and Mert Müldür from the Turkish National Team scored an own goal while trying to save the ball from going into the nets.
Neither Türkiye nor Netherlands were expected to qualify for the quarter finals of Euro 2024 from the view of foreigners. The Netherlands' National Team were more structured and less likely to collapse mentally than Türkiye. Only Spain has created more statistically defined goal chances than Netherlands. However, we can not just talk about goals, we also had to talk about the emotions of the Turkish players. From the amazing 90 + 4th minute save of Mert Günok in the Austria match, the golden boy of the Turks Arda Güler; Türkiye was very motivated before the match. These were not enough for Türkiye to win the match, but at least the fans were filled with pride no matter the result of the match. Also, the two match ban for Merih Demiral was effective in motivating the Turkish community. After his goals in the Austria match, Demiral was banned for two games by UEFA after his 'wolf' celebration against Austria. This of course got many negative responses, and Merih Demiral defended himself after the game, saying that his celebration was "connected to his Turkish identity" but yet the council did not change their decision. As a protest, the fans sang the national anthem with the same hand gesture.
The Criticism to Türkiye
There were not only good opinions on minds, after the loss the team faced much criticism.
The coach of Türkiye, Vincenzo Montella, was criticized to be making several wrong choices. Firstly, Montella is following a no central forward strategy, which is not found very logical by the Turkish fans and the commentators. Secondly, Montella is thought to be making late substitutions on bringing the forwards to the game in the last minutes. In the declaration Hakan Çalhanoğlu made after the match, he said: “We didn’t start the second half well, we dropped back. After the second goal we went back to long balls, I wish we had not dropped back,” expressing his feelings.
There were also criticisms to the referee of the match about the yellow, red card decisions as well as the fouls and freekicks that he did not catch or paid attention as much as wanted.
Some other critiques were towards the player of the national team, especially Kenan Yıldız. He was seen as if he did not focus enough on the game, or at least not as much as others. When the match stopped for some time, the cameras focused on Kenan Yıldız and he was seen touching and fixing his hair. That scene made him get harsh criticism, even from his own fans. Some other young players faced criticism as well so Hakan Çalhanoğlu made a declaration, “If there is a criticism, direct it to me. Don't criticize our young players too
harshly. They are very valuable to us."
After the Tournament
After the matches ended, Turkish fans were filled both with sadness and pride since the national team made it to the quarter finals for the first time after 2008 and the fans
had high hopes.
Some players showed their true talent in these matches, and all of the players showed great effort. Many successful teams such as Chelsea and Liverpool are interested in Barış Alper Yılmaz and Ferdi Kadıoğlu who are currently playing in Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe. Arda Güler, the golden boy who is now playing in Real Madrid, showcased great talent. Kenan Yıldız, who is a player of Juventus, increased his popularity internationally.
The Turkish community is grateful for what our team has come up with and all of their efforts. We would like to thank them once again for making us excited and proud throughout the time we had in the tournament.