Vincenzo Montella is the only Italian coach still in the running for this European Championship. Surprisingly, and thanks to a brace from Merih Demiral, Turkey beat the highly rated Austria last night and reached the quarterfinals. On Saturday at the Olympiastadion in Berlin they will face the Netherlands, a team that yesterday disposed of Romania quite easily.
With this success Montella confirms the excellent work he is doing at the helm of the Turkish national team: He replaced Stefan Kuntz on September 21, after Turkey drew with Armenia and lost the friendly against Japan, and from that moment on the team literally turned around. First the victories against Croatia and Latvia to secure the pass to Euro 2024, then the six points in the group stage and, finally, the victory yesterday.
Results that ‘dismantle’ one of Luciano Spalletti’s mitigating circumstances. The Italian coach who took over from Roberto Mancini last August spoke on Saturday evening, after the elimination, of the little time available to work with the team: “But I have to say this, even if it may seem like I’m looking for excuses: before this competition, other coaches had 20-30 games, I had ten and we already had our guns pointed at us saying that I had to win.”