Turkey 2-1 Georgia

Euro 2024/Group F/Round 1

MOTM: Arda Güler

Other standout performances include: Ferdi Kadioglu, Mert Muldur, Georges Mikautadze and Giorgi Kochorashvili.

Notable Stats:

• Turkey are the second team to start a match at the European Championships with two teenagers (Arda Güler and Kenan Yıldız) after Hungary in 1964.

• Georges Mikautadze has scored Georgia first ever goal at a major international tournament.

• Arda Güler is the youngest player to score on his debut at a European Championship finals (19 years and 114 days) surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 19 years and 128 days in 2004.

Match Stats:

• xG: 3.17 - 1.69

• xThreat: 1.81 - 1.32

• Possession: 55.6% - 44.4%

• Field Tilt: 63.8% - 36.2%

The Game of the Tournament

Turkey setup with a brave attacking formation that allowed Arda Güler to float into the middle, Kadıoğlu the freedom in the final third and had Çalhanoğlu moving across the pitch to support it all.

Here is a look at that setup in action.

It gave them a lot of access into the box through Yıldız on the left side and Kadıoğlu providing crosses. Çalhanoğlu sat deeper looking for passes between the lines and to set up shots on the egde of the box.

Georgia had setup with a 5-3-2 out of possession and one of the Turkish midfielders would drop alongside the CBs to ensure they couldn’t be pressed. The setup allowed too much space out wide for Turkey.

Georgia responded by moving Kvaratskhelia deeper to 5-4-1. Allowed them to prevent progression through the middle much better and have Kvaratskhelia in a better position to pick up the ball and drive Georgia up the pitch.

Here is a look at that switch.

You can see from the passing networks below for each team that they both primarily worked down their own left side. Giorgi Kochorashvili was excellent in this match at winning the ball and getting Georgia out of their own half with passes into Kvaratskhelia.

The first goal from Turkey was another goal from outside the box, we’ve seen a lot of them already this tournament. Likely due to the space given when defensive setups are not drilled enough compared to at club level. They just don’t have the time.

After Georgia moved Kvaratskhelia deeper you saw them get more and more attacks against Turkey which led to this goal. Beating his man on the edge of the box and Georges Mikautadze scored with a first time shot.

Georgia continued to have chances throughout the match as Turkey struggled to defend well inside their own box.

In the second half Turkey moved Güler inside and Yılmaz took his place out wide providing width and crosses into the box. Güler picked up the ball wide on the right side and and drifted into the space on the edge of the box. Incredible finish into the top corner.

Georgia continued to get more chances in the second half, able to go right through the middle of Turkey, wide open defensively for all they have impressed going forward and that will bring concern for them against better opposition. They’ll absolutely score goals but they will also concede a few.

If not for some well timed blocks from Turkey then Georgia would have equalized. By pushing for that goal, sending up the keeper for Georgia, Turkey managed to get the ball back on a corner and wrap up the win.

Both these teams will give Portugal a good game and after the performance against Czechia I wouldn’t be surprised if they get a result.

Portugal 0-0 Czechia

Euro 2024/Group F/Round 1

MOTM: Vitinha

Notable Stats:

• Pepe is now the oldest ever player to appear at the European Championship (41).

• Francisco Conceição is the first Portugal player to score as a substitute at the UEFA European Championship since Eder in the 2016 final.

• Portugal vs Czechia is the first game of EURO2024 to be goalless at half time.

• Portugal completed 368 passes in the first half, their most in a half of football at the European Championship finals since 1980.

Match Stats:

• xG: 1.89 - 0.31

• xThreat: 1.63 - 0.54

• Possession: 73.2% - 26.8%

• Field Tilt: 80.2% - 19.8%

• Penalty Box Shots: 10 - 3

• Deep Completions: 10 - 4

• PPDA: 8.6 - 20

• High Turners: 10 - 5

• 10+ Pass Sequences: 27 - 2

Portugal Struggled

Roberto Martinez does not disappoint with his preference for a confusing three at the back system. Confusion was the right word to describe this first half performance as players were always in each others way or looking uncomfortable on the ball.

Portugal struggled to find the passes between the lines and connect to the attackers around the box. That’s why you saw Ronaldo dropping deeper and deeper. Vitinha was dropping into the six position when really he should have been helping to connect the team further forward. Cancelo inverting into midfield was just in the way of other players in deeper positions.

Out of possession Portugal looked just as confused and unbalanced with a defensive midfield pairing of Fernandes and Vitinha. Leaving the center of the pitch exposed. Dias playing as a wide RCB, a role he’s not best suited to. A better team exposes this.

One of the best moves by Portugal came from solving the problems mentioned above. They were able to use Vitinha to find passes between the lines. Cancelo further forward to pull CBs out of position and find Bernardo Silva running into the box.

You can still see the problems with them on the counter attack against a better side. Ruben Dias pulled wide and Pepe in the middle by himself. Feels like he wanted Nuno Mendes in the team for his recovery pace but wasn’t willing to drop Cancelo.

Just by dropping Cancelo they could move Bernardo Silva into midfield as the connector inside and then introduce Pedro Neto on the RW to attack space behind. Jota could be considered instead of Ronaldo but most of his problems in the game came from the tactical setup.

Here is the passing network from both teams and you can see the struggle of Portugal to access the front three. Only Bernardo could do that and it meant they weren’t outnumbering the back line of Czechia.

A clear plan of providing crosses into the box just fed into the hands of Czechia since their three central defenders only had to deal with Ronaldo.

In qualifying Bruno Fernandes was outstanding but in this game it didn’t matter where he had the ball there was little options for him to pick out.

As mentioned before, Vitinha was excellent for Portugal in midfield and should continue to start. Bring in Palhinha as the defensive midfielder and let Vitinha work further forward in the pockets.

Not an encouraging performance from Portugal but like England they have the options within the squad to fix it and like France they have the individual quality in the team to get pass these problems within games.

Not the manager however I’d be confident in finding the solutions before it matters in a knockout game.

EURO 2024: Team of Round 1

Here is my team of the round and I’ll put together a different one after each round of the tournament. Plenty of other names that missed out.

Xhaka, Kroos, Barella, Kovacic, Seiwald and Vitinha are just some of the names that could have been included in midfield.

Ratiu and Dragusin from Romania could have been included.

Bijol from Slovenia. Hancko and Lobotka from Slovakia could have been included.

Mikautadze from Georgia, Verbruggen from Netherlands, Maignan and Hernandez from France, Carvajal from Spain, Calafiori from Italy and Aebischer from Switzerland all other names to mention.

If we are looking at possible contenders to win the tournament then I’d start with Germany and Spain as teams that impressed the most. France showed again their outstanding individual quality. Italy quietly performed well against Albania. England had some fantastic moments in the first half against Serbia but certainly have some adjustments to make. Belgium had a better performance than the result suggests. Portugal and the Netherlands needed the bench to win the game and will need changes to go far in the knockouts. Switzerland and Austria are the closest teams to being a dark horse.

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