The Netherlands and Türkiye have hit their best form at the right time and will face each other in a thrilling quarter-final.
- Who: Netherlands vs Türkiye
- What: Euro 2024 quarter-finals
- Where: Olympiastadion stadium in Berlin, Germany
- When: Kick-off at 9pm local time (7pm GMT) on Saturday 6 July
- How to follow: Al Jazeera will have live text commentary of the game, including three hours of build-up.
While not the glamorous quarter-final tie, the Netherlands and Turkey could provide one of the more memorable encounters.
The Netherlands’ nervous qualification in the third category of their group was followed by their best Euro 2024 performance in the final round, when they defeated Romania 3-0 in a comprehensive victory.
Turkey, one of the most fun teams to watch in Germany, dominated their round of 16 tie against Austria, but in the end only managed a 2-1 victory.
The Dutch were underwhelming in the group stage, where they suffered a sloppy defeat to Austria and shared a goalless draw with France. But Ronald Koeman’s team recovered at the right time, with the tournament in the knockout stage.
A convincing win over Romania – thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo and a brace from Donyell Malen – gave Oranje confidence ahead of the quarter-finals, but they face an equally upbeat team and let alone their fans.
Türkiye ready to satisfy Dutch revival hopes
Turkey’s caliber was in doubt when they suffered a heavy defeat to Portugal in the group stage, but they made a surprising run to the quarter-finals by eliminating in-form Austria, who were emerging as underdogs.
The Turks have already wrested the title from Austria and could be on track to advance to the semi-finals for only the second time in their history.
Dutchman Ferdi Kadioglu, a player who stood out in Turkey’s victory over Austria, is excited about the prospect of facing his home country.
“The Netherlands must certainly be afraid of us,” he said. “If you look at how much energy we put into a match. We also created dangerous chances and played well defensively. We fought a lot. We also have the 12th man with the fans.”
Real Madrid’s Turkish star Arda Guler played with much more maturity than his 19 years, demonstrating calm and skill by acting as an escape valve for his team’s counterattacks, and providing an assist for the second goal against to Austria. Dutch winger Xavi Simons had a similar effect on his team, opening the scoring for Cody Gakpo against the Romanians from his position on the right wing.
With the Dutch dominating possession against Romania and Turkey happy to let Austria have the ball and hit them on the counter, Berlin’s Olympiastadion should see more of the same, with plenty of young talent on display.
The winner of this contest will face England or Switzerland in the semi-finals in Dortmund.
FIFA classification:
Netherlands (7), Türkiye (42)
Face to face registration:
14 games – 6 wins for the Netherlands, 4 for Turkey, 4 draws
Last five games:
Netherlands: WLDWW
Peru: WWLWL
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
