After a positive start Friday, the Turkish national football team takes on Belgium in its second group game for EURO 2012 qualifiers.
Turkey will welcome Belgium at Istanbul’s Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium on Tuesday, four days after its comfortable 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan on the opening day of Group A.
The Friday match at the Astana Arena was Turkey’s first competitive match with Dutch coach Guus Hiddink at the helm.
Galatasaray attacker Arda Turan opened the scoring in the 24th minute of the match, but the game’s best goal came two minutes later when Bayern Munich midfielder Hamit Altıntop volleyed a ball coming from the corner directly into the net.
The third strike came late in the second half when Nihat Kahveci of Beşiktaş showed his class despite a lack of space to slot home from close range.
Turkey was dominant throughout the game and created many chances while allowing few. Although such dominance was to be expected against a comparatively weak opponent, Turkey did approach the game with a positive approach, attacking whenever possible.
The fast-paced attacking mentality could be a sign of what Hiddink is trying to inculcate in the team.
Speaking after the game, Hiddink tried to play down Turkey’s performance but praised the level of discipline shown against Kazakhstan.
“Turkish players like to play football,” said Hiddink of his side. “We have talent and experience, and those are the most important qualities in football. You need intelligence and experience on the pitch. Kazakhstan is not a high-quality team but played with great discipline. We won because we concentrated.”
The Turkish team, however, can occasionally slip out of a game mentally, the Dutch trainer said.
“I saw my players lose their concentration sometimes, we need to fix that,” he said. “But all in all, we wanted to make a great start and that was what we did.”
Turkey will find stiffer competition against Belgium, and considering that the national team failed to win the last two matches against the Red Devils, things may be difficult again. Turkey was held to a 1-1 draw at home and was beaten 2-0 in Belgium during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Hiddink said that Turkey will take Belgium’s challenge very seriously.
“We will definitely take Belgium seriously, since they have many players competing in important European leagues,” said Hiddink. “On Tuesday, a serious opponent awaits us, but we will get six points in two matches, which is our main target.”
Belgium lost to Germany 1-0 at home on Friday.
Boasting two quality center backs in Thomas Vermaalen of Arsenal and Daniel Van Buyten of Bayern Munich, Belgium has a tough back line and its midfield will rely on the combination of rock-solid Marouane Fellaini and the creative Steven Defour.
On the other hand, Turkey is likely to play with a packed midfield that has Altıntop and Turan in addition to Fenerbahçe’s Emre Belözoğlu and Stoke City’s Tuncay Şanlı, who can rise up to challenges on both ends of the pitch. The midfield is solidified with hard-battling Mehmet Aurelio, whose Beşiktaş teammate Kahveci is likely to be up front again.
The back four consists of three Galatasaray men, with full backs Sabri Sarıoğlu and Hakan Balta teaming up with Servet Çetin and accompanied by Bursaspor’s Ömer Erdoğan, who won his first ever cap in Kazakhstan at the age of 33.
Trabzonspor’s Onur Kıvrak is a quality goalkeeper and is currently in top form, as seen in his team’s two matches against Liverpool in the Europa League playoff round.
Heavy favorite Germany takes on Azerbaijan and Austria meets Kazakhstan in the other matches in Group A.
