Türkiye — Portugal: An Unselfish Cristiano Ronaldo (0-3)

Portugal put on a more solid offensive performance in their orthodox back-four formation, remaining compact when defending each long vertical pass from Türkiye. The win was secured by runners in the channels and a mistake in defense.

Written by Kyle Boas.

We decided to make all of our EURO 2024 articles free to read. If you want to support our work, consider taking a subscription.

Portugal snuck three points past Czechia in their first group match with a 92nd minute winner by Francisco Conceição. Türkiye got three points against Georgia in what was probably the most entertaining, back-and-forth, and loud match of Euro 2024 so far. Türkiye were never expected to beat Portugal; they came in as underdogs, hoping to shake up the group, and ended the day a bit flat off the high of their previous win.

Türkiye’s lineup included Altay Bayindar in goal, with Mehmet Zeki Celik, Samet Akaydin, Abdülkerim Bardakci, and Ferdi Kadioglu in defense. Hakan Calhanoglu and Kaan Ayhan sat at the base of the midfield. Yunus Akgün and Kerem Akturkoglu play down the wing, with Orkun Kökcü in the middle and Baris Yilmaz up front. Notably, goalkeeper Mert Günok, right-back Mert Müldür, midfielder Arda Güler (reportedly injured), and left-winger Kenan Yildiz are on the bench.

Portugal’s lineup included Diogo Costa in goal, with Nuno Mendes, Pepe, Ruben Dias, and Joaõ Cancelo in defense. Palhinha, Vitinha, Bernardo Silva inverted from right-wing, and Bruno Fernandes played in midfield. Rafael Leão held width on the left-wing with Cristiano Ronald up front. Jõao Palhinha comes in, and Diogo Dalot starts from the bench.

This is the more conventional back-four that we are accustomed to from Portugal, which transforms into a back-three in possession when Diogo Dalot gets forward down the right-wing.

Before the match, Portugal manager Roberto Martinez noted in his press conference that Turkey plays “very vertical football” and they “have a very strong inside game,” therefore Portugal needed to play “compact” in defense. He mentioned he wanted more volume of shots on goal, like in the second half against Czechia, and they need to play “our game” because Turkey has shown “they know how to defend.”

Türkiye manager Vincenzo Montella mentioned he wanted to see his team “keep the ball more” because Portugal “is used to ball possession.” They didn’t keep enough possession due to their inconsistent passing.

Vertical passing from Türkiye

Türkiye midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu plays a pass over the top to center-forward Baris Alper Yilmaz.

Türkiye was as vertical as Roberto Martinez and Vincenzo Montella described it to be. They constantly looked for this specific pass down the right hand side, either on the ground or through the air. It felt like every pass forward from Türkiye left the ground.

Center-forward Baris Alper Yilmaz would drift over and curve his run into the space between Pepe and Nuno Mendes, and then the player on the wing would look for the underlap.

Baris Alper Yilmaz lays the ball off to right-winger Yunus Akgün.

Portugal remained compact once this predictable pass was played, easily recovering the ball off a mistake on most possessions. Jõao Palhinha, Ruben Dias, and Pepe’s ability to recover the ball proved vital. Türkiye only managed one shot on target inside the box the entire match. The main threat on the break was the pass to the back post.

One of Arda Güler’s main contributions to the match, after coming on in the 70th minute, was a chipped ball from the left half-space into the six yard box. Türkiye missed having someone like Güler controlling the pace of play once they entered the final third to play slow moving passes to the far post from the half-space.

Nuno Mendes’ underlapping runs

The word I would use to describe Portugal with the ball against Türkiye is sterile or beige. They weren’t robotic, but the way they moved in their positional zones made it feel like certain players were on rails. Once they get ten yards past the halfway line, they go direct for the sake of direct, losing the ball unnecessarily at times.

Jõao Cancelo and Bernardo Silva were the most adventurous of the players, both rotating in and out, with Bernardo moving wide, Cancelo inverting, or vice versa. The right side wasn’t a great source of progression, though; it was more of an area to pin the opposition back. Vitinha did a great job dropping deep to help circulate the ball to the other side of the pitch where they had their pace stored in Rafael Leão.

21st minute: Portugal left-winger Rafael Leão passes to left-back Nuno Mendes on the underlap into the left half-space, and Nuno Mendes crosses low to the center of the penalty box to the onrushing Bernardo Silva, who scores the goal.

They become exciting when they get runners moving through the channels. Nuno Mendes from left-back was the main source of joy moving into the left half-space. He made this run on several occasions throughout the match, one such run resulted in the assist for Bernardo Silva’s goal in the 21st minute. Overload the right side with Vitinha, Bernardo Silva, and Cancelo to isolate Rafael Leão and Nuno Mendes.

I was surprised at how much license Nuno Mendes was given to get forward. Whereas last match Portugal was wary about giving Czechia the numerical advantage in defensive transition, so they always kept three defenders back behind the ball. They were fine with allowing Jõao Cancelo and Nuno Mendes to get forward, only leaving center-backs Ruben Dias and Pepe back in the rest-defense. They were much more offensive against Türkiye.

An unfortunate mistake by Türkiye

The second goal, an own goal, in the 28th minute came from a miscommunication between goalkeeper Altay Bayindir and center-back Samet Akaydin. The ball rolled slowly back towards the penalty area, and Bayindir appeared to tell Akaydin to leave the ball. As Bayindir went to whine up to hit it long, Akaydin firmly passed it back towards goal. It rolled past, and no one could stop it from going in. You can sense moral dropped a bit after going down two goals, but it felt like if Türkiye got one goal, they’d be in it. That goal never arrived.

Unselfishness within the Portuguese squad

In previous competitions, there was a lot of tension and squabbling within the Portuguese squad due to egos, with the biggest ego being one of the world’s best players, Cristiano Ronaldo. It did not seem like a very friendly atmosphere to play in.

As Ronaldo nears the end of his career, he acts more like a father figure. You can see he is enjoying himself and the others around him more, and that sentiment rubs off on the rest of the team. These are the times to savor a living legend because there will not be many more. Midfielder Ruben Neves put it simply after the match: “A tournament like this is to enjoy, to be happy on the pitch. […] to enjoy every single minute on the pitch, mainly because we are playing for a full country.”

Instead of playing for themselves, they are playing for everyone, and that translates to the pitch with the way they pass the ball and the decisions they make.

Take, for example, the third goal in the 56th minute. The ball is played over the top past Turkiye’s defense, and Cristiano Ronaldo is in on goal, but Bruno Fernandes is square to him open for the tap-in. In previous years, Ronaldo would shoot without even thinking about passing the ball to Fernandes and probably score. Today, he does a tiny fake to shoot and then squares it to Fernandes for the assist. Ronaldo was probably thinking about breaking the record for the most assists in European Championship history (8), but you can see in his actions during other parts of the game that he does want to help the team score rather than pad his stats. Why be selfish and shoot when you have the record for the most goals in European Championship history (14)?

Martinez described Ronaldo’s pass as “a pure moment for Portuguese football, that should be shown in every academy.” This dramatic statement should come as no surprise to anyone because he is trying to impose the principles of possession play onto the team, which require unselfishness with and without the ball, for the betterment of the team.

Substitutions

All five substitutions for both sides were like-for-like. The two subs that made the biggest impact were Arda Güler for Türkiye and Pedro Neto for Portugal. Every time Pedro Neto gets the ball, you know something positive is going to happen, as he sharply cuts in and out of tackles down the left-wing with pace. He brings something different to Rafael Leão, Leão looks more likely to score, and Pedro Neto looks more likely to assist from a cross.

Takeaways

Portugal should keep this simple dynamic going with Nuno Mendes back as the defensive fullback with license to get forward, two center-backs, an offensive fullback, Jõao Cancelo or Diogo Dalot, down the right-wing, and Palhinha anchoring the midfield. There’s no real need to experiment further. Using a back-five is a decent second option, but they look the most secure, dynamic, and flexible in this back-four formation.

There will be rotation in the final group stage match against Georgia because Portugal qualified for the round of 16 with this win. Danilo Pereira, Matheus Nunes, Goncalo Ramos, and Jõao Felix have yet to play a minute on the group stage. The quicker Portugal finds their first choice starting at eleven, the better. They need to maintain rhythm in possession. Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes, Bruno Fernandes, and Vitinha should be part of the group of players who start every game in the knockout stage.

The first group match against Georgia was emotionally and physically draining for Türkiye, I am sure, and that tiredness showed in their performance. I don’t think they should change their pass selection, but they do need Arda Güler back fully fit to get on the end of those second balls and help retain possession once the ball is played into the opposition’s half.

We decided to make all of our EURO 2024 articles free to read. If you want to support our work, consider taking a subscription.

Use the arrows to scroll through all available match plots. Check the match plots page for plots of other matches.