EURO 2012 Qualification – Match Preview: Turkey versus Germany
Turkey travel to northern Europe to face Germany in a match that will be brimming with exciting talent. The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the same stadium which hosted the 2006 FIFA World
Cup final between Italy and France. A long time has passed since that match and a long time has also passed since Germany made it to the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in the summer of 2010. Despite impressing throughout the tournament in
South Africa, Germans fell short of the final mark as they lost in the semi-final to the eventual World Champions, Spain.
A lot of positives emerged from the competition for Germany, for once fans got to see a new look Germany which consisted the likes of Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira in an attacking Bavarian outfit rather than a disciplined one. This
new German team with attacking flair and defensive solidity is one of the most feared teams in the world right now and justifiably so. Nonetheless, Turkey will be looking to break down the myth of German invincibility as both the teams’ battle each other in
a European Championship qualification match.
Turkey will gain confidence from the fact that Germany will be without a host of their first team players for this matchup in question. Joachim Lowe will be on a low as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany’s standout player at the FIFA
2010 World Cup is set to miss the EURO 2012 qualifier due to fitness problems. Phillip Lahm, the German left back and veteran defender is set to retain captaincy for the match against Turkey as Michael Ballack also misses out on the squad due to an injury.
Stefan Kiessling is also not fit enough to play for the match as Germany will try to compete against the Turks with a relatively makeshift squad of players.
Kevin Grosskreutz is also another injury casualty for the Germans but the young winger might return for Germany’s fourth qualification match against Kazakhstan which is scheduled to take place in the middle of next week. On the
other hand, Turkey will be without their star athlete, Selcuk Sahin as the Fenerbache player has pulled out of the squad due to an injury that he sustained during one of his team’s training sessions. Astonishingly twenty one out of the twenty six players that
have been selected for Turkey hail from the Turkish league, which means that there will be a strong Turkish sentiment as the Asians take on the might of German football.
Germany have thus far played two qualification matches, the first one of these games was against Belgium national team. It was an especially dull encounter which Germany won by a goal to nil in the end, however Die Mannschaft were
back to their best as they thumped Azerbaijan by six goals to one in their second EURO 2012 qualifier. Conversely, Turkey won their first qualifier by a score line of three goals to nil against Kazakhstan whereas their second qualifier was a tough encounter
against Belgium which ended with the score line at three goals to two in favour of the Turks.
Another important aspect to this match is the fact that two of Germany’s star players are actually Turkish in descent. Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira both hail from Turkish descent, these players were born in Germany no doubt but
their fore fathers belong to Turkey. Ozil will be the man to watch out for as far as Germany are concerned, after having a strong World Cup with his national side, the young midfielder is now impressing with Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid. Alternatively for Turkey,
Hamit Altıntop will be the key man on the wings as he has already scored two goals in two of Turkey’s qualification games.
Regardless of whatever form Turkey carry into this game, the Germans are a very strong team on paper but football isn’t played on paper. Even so, Germany are favourites to win this match but Turkey are expected to give their opponents
a tough time.
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