{"id":3846,"date":"2023-11-21T18:09:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T18:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3846"},"modified":"2023-11-21T18:27:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T18:27:12","slug":"the-resurgence-of-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2023\/11\/21\/the-resurgence-of-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Resurgence of Turkey<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Rob Page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (November 20th<\/sup> 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Talk of Play-offs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following disappointing results against Armenia \u2013 a loss at home and the recent 1-1 draw in Yerevan on Saturday, Cymru manager Rob Page knows that Wales must defeat an already qualified Turkey to progress, and that will be a hard ask as Turkey not only top Group D, but are unbeaten away as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Page won\u2019t talk of qualification through play-offs \u2013 they must beat Turkey and hope that Armenia do them a favour against Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having no talk of play-offs,\u201d Page said. \u201cIf we\u2019re talking play-offs, we may as well call the game off on Tuesday. That\u2019s our mentality and attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fully focused on the job we\u2019ve got and we don’t want any regrets when that final whistle goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were aware that (play-offs) would be the talking point because of the disappointment of the Armenia game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wales drew 1-1 on November 18th<\/sup>, a result that ensured Wales will have a play-off at the very least, but automatic qualification is not out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not admitting defeat and thinking \u2018why not?\u2019 because potentially we can qualify if the other result goes our way,\u201d Page said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I don\u2019t want to do is walk off at the end of the game \u2013 the result\u2019s gone for us \u2013 and we could have taken charge of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Pushover<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page must hope that Armenia avoid defeat in Croatia and Wales can get a win against Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, despite having qualified already, Page knows that he can expect no assistance from his opposite number, Vincenzo Montella, or a resurgent Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vincenzo Montella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Montella was clear that he would not be fielding an \u2018inexperienced\u2019 team or taking it easy against Wales on Tuesday night. \u201cWe want to win the group,\u201d Montella told journalists at tonight\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, we [Turkey] have come all the way to here, to Cardiff, and we are prepared. If you look at the Euro 2024 qualification standings, we are right up there, and we are top of Group D. So, we have come to Wales as group leaders and we want to finish as group winners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he offered some comfort to Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also drew at home to Armenia, so nothing is certain in football,\u201d he said. And Croatia, despite their World Cup heroics have not performed to expectations. Nevertheless, Turkey poses a formidable threat. Montella\u2019s charges are unbeaten in this qualification campaign, but he was giving nothing away on selection for Tuesday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWhen I first prepared for these games we had 29 players and all were fit to play,\u201d Montella said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to exclude some through injury and some different situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I believe in these players and, depending on the game and situations, we have different strategies in plan for each match.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montella made it clear what he wanted from the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at our history, we have previously had these moments where we strive to win our qualification group. We are prepared for tomorrow\u2019s game and we want to win this game to maintain our position at the top of Group D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActually, nothing is certain in football. So, we not know if this Wales team are going to get a draw or even a victory over us tomorrow. We have to focus on what we have to do during the game. We have to show why we sit on top of Group D and this all we have to do. In essence, we have to deliver a strong performance on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Turkey?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vincenzo Montella enjoyed a fulfilling career as a striker most notably for Sampdoria and Roma, but also briefly for Fulham. He has coached Sampdoria, Roma and Fiorentina. More recently, he has worked in Turkey, coaching Adana Demirspor for two years \u2013 its technical director is Dutch great Patrick Kluivert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montella has an affinity with the country, taking over the national team from Stefan Kuntz in June 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had two years of experience managing in Turkey and I\u2019ve seen the players there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the potential and the performance. I had the chance to get to know them and now this opportunity to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (November 20th 2023) No Talk of Play-offs Following disappointing results against Armenia \u2013 a loss at home and the recent [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,14],"tags":[517,520,521,518,347,217,516,71,519,210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3846"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3857,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3846\/revisions\/3857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}