19.11.2025 12:37
The Turkish National Football Team drew 2-2 against Spain in their last match of Group E in the 2026 FIFA World Cup European Qualifiers. Speaking at the press conference held after the match, Vincenzo Montella said, "Maybe I can make a request; if we could have a chance to work with our players for a few extra days by discussing with the clubs to play one less match in March, I would be very happy if everyone contributes to this."
The Turkish National Football Team drew 2-2 against Spain in their last match of the UEFA Euro 2026 Qualifiers E Group, which took place away from home. After the match, the head coach of the Turkish National Football Team, Vincenzo Montella, made statements at the press conference. Montella emphasized that they are a team with a high competitive percentage, saying, "This match makes me very proud. At the end of the match, I thanked our players while talking to them; they showed tremendous sacrifice and an incredible fight. I may have told you, but I also told them, we are a team with a high competitive percentage, no matter who plays. That's why we were confident we would deliver such a performance. We truly accept the result wholeheartedly; we tried until the end, and we could have won. We are leaving happily after a good performance with this draw."
'WE WILL CONTINUE OUR WORK WITH OUR BEST CONCENTRATION'
Highlighting that they will prepare in the best way for the playoffs in March, the Italian coach said, "Our U21, U17, and U19 teams are also going through a successful period, which makes me happy. Especially, I was very pleased that our U21 team won before the match. I had taken two of their players before the camp; everyone knows how sensitive I am towards them. Now we need to reset everything, and we will continue our work with our best concentration for March. In March, we will all chase a great dream together. I might make a request; if we could talk to the clubs in March to play one less match and have a few extra days to work with our players, I would be very happy if everyone contributes to this."
'I AM VERY HAPPY FOR OUR PLAYERS GOING THROUGH TOUGH TIMES'
Vincenzo Montella expressed his happiness for the players going through tough times, continuing his words:
"I am very happy for our players who are going through a special period or tough times. Especially Salih, who hasn't been able to play as he wanted in his club for a long time, had an incredible match. I am proud of him. Orkun may be playing in his club, but we know he is going through a tough period. Today, he showed incredible character and demonstrated how quality a player he is. Çağlar is coming from a period where he played less, and he also showed a fantastic performance. İrfan can't even go to matches with his club; he also performed very well. The players I mentioned are exemplary characters off the field, so when you are this good, there is always help from above. Altay is also like this; he may not be playing as he wants, but today he showed a fantastic performance."
'WE GAVE THE BALL TO THE OPPONENT INTENTIONALLY TODAY'
The 51-year-old coach mentioned that they intentionally gave the ball to Spain, acting by calculating their margin of error, saying, "If there is an established game format in national teams during the periods of modern football, like Spain, you need to adapt against them. All the players there play with the same system in their clubs, and although their game is established, we showed that we adapted this way when we considered all the characteristics of the opponent. This is actually an added value for us; we can adapt regardless of who it is. Today we had 13 shots; when Portugal played in the Nations League final, they only had 7 shots against Spain. Today, we intentionally left the ball to the opponent, and we acted by calculating our margin of error."
'WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE OUR PLAYERS WHO PLAY LESS'
Vincenzo Montella expressed that they will fully concentrate on the playoffs, stating, "Nothing changes for us; we don't think about whether we are close or far. We need to be more emotionally balanced. Today, we had the opportunity to see our players who play less, and they gave very nice responses. Now we will fully concentrate on the playoffs and proceed step by step. We want to approach the target together in the way we desire."
'WE SAW THAT WE LEARNED OUR LESSONS IN THE BEST WAY WITH THE PERFORMANCE WE SHOWED'
In response to a question about the system in the first match played in Konya, Montella answered: "We need to have a certain positioning when making decisions; at that time, everyone in the national team believed we needed to play this way, thinking we had to play head-to-head. If we had played with that tactic that day, maybe something different could have happened; we could have lost, but we might not have learned the necessary lessons. It could have left a different bitter taste. I think that defeat was a very healthy defeat because it made us learn the necessary lessons. With the performance we showed today, we saw that we learned our lessons in the best way and completed the match with a nice performance. We believed until the end that we would win. The reason I say healthy defeat is that after that defeat, we played our best football in the matches against Georgia and Bulgaria, allowing us to win. I have no thoughts of going back and changing that."
'I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF SALIH AND DENİZ'
Evaluating the performance of Deniz Gül and Salih Özcan, who scored the goals for the crescent-star team, Montella said, "I am very happy with the performance of Salih and Deniz. Salih scored a goal and played very well. Deniz is both young, open to development, very hardworking, and today he put on a self-sacrificing match. He also showed that he can play at this level. We are closely following Deniz's development for our future."
'WE MUST GO TO THE TARGET WITH CONFIDENT STEPS'
The head coach of the Turkish National Football Team, Vincenzo Montella, concluded his remarks as follows:
"As a person from Naples, my culture is very close to that of Turkey. After such beautiful performances, everyone gets excited; we need to be careful about that; we must keep our feet on the ground. We have two finals in the playoffs; we must first pass the first one to play both. We will proceed step by step, and we must go to the target with confident steps. We were not very lucky in the draw for the qualifying group. The team ranked 1st in the FIFA rankings came to us; there was no upper level. We need to wait a little longer to go to the World Cup; we need to wait for March."