June 19, 2024 - Finally, matchday one of the Euro 24 comes to an end, with Portugal and Turkey winning their matches. The first match of the day was between debutants Georgia and seasoned Turkey at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund. Turkey was seen as a clear favorite, but they had to fight very hard against determined Georgians. From the start, Turkey was holding possession very firmly in Georgia's half, and as a result, Mert Müldür braced a beautiful volley after the ball was being deflected from Georgia's defender in the 25th minute. Georgia shifted gears, and as a result, Georges Mikautadze capitalized on the pass by Giorgi Kochorashvili in the 32nd minute. The score-line would have been different as the goal by Turkey's Kenan Yildiz in the 27th minute was disallowed due to offside. During the second half, Turkey created many chances as Georgian defenders left so many spaces, and man marking was also not quite accurate. In the 65th minute, Arda Güler scored a marvelous screamer out of the box and gave a sigh of relief to Turkey fans. At last, the cherry on top was provided by Muhammed Aktürkoğlu during the last minute of the match, as Georgia's keeper Mamardashvili has no chance to save it. Georgia also created many chances, two of them hitting the post, but the overall competition between these two teams was of cream level as both teams were playing top class football, and eventually Turkey won convincingly and is now in the driving seat of Group F, which includes Portugal and the Czech Republic too. Georgia's performance was also commendable, they had shown grit at this level and have the capability for an upset in their next matches.
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| Turkey Players celebrating with their fans. |
The second match of the day was between the two joint-highest scorers of the previous Euro 2020 edition, Portugal's Ronaldo and Czech boy Patrick Schick. Portugal dominated the game as they held 78 % possession and created eight shots on target compared to Czech's only one shot on target, which was converted precisely to a goal by Lukas Provod in the 62nd minute, which gave the Czech Republic a much-wanted lead, but they couldn't hold their lead as an own goal by Robin Hranac in the 69th minute leveled the score. In the second minute of stoppage time, Francisco Conceição scored an easy goal to take three important points from their opening match. The performance by Portugal was not up to par, but at the end, they collected a scratchy win over the Czechs. Roberto Martinez, head coach of Portugal, had to change their tactics as the positioning of Joao Cancelo and Bernardo Silva was not effective, and the experienced midfield of Turkey can expose their loopholes in the upcoming match.
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| Francisco Conceição after his decisive goal. |
Final Results
Turkey Georgia
3 - 1
Portugal Czech Republic
2 - 1
Report by Sarthak Khode
Contact- sarthakkhode@gmail.com
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