TOPSHOT – Turkey’s forward #08 Arda Guler celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the UEFA … [+]
There are some stands that are more famous than the stadiums they’re in.
Dortmund’s Sudtribune, the so-called “Yellow Wall” is one of them.
A single tier of 25,000 fans, all willing the ball into the home team’s net, making Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion a soccer landmark and an intimidating fortress all at once.
On Tuesday night, the Yellow Wall was painted red.
UEFA EURO 2024 might be Germany’s tournament, but for Turkey, the match against Georgia is the closest thing to a home game.
Germany is home to around five million people with Turkish roots, and the Ruhr industrial area around Dortmund is home to a huge Turkish community. Five members of the Turkish national team were born in Germany, including midfielder Kaan Ayhan, who was born in nearby Gelsenkirchen.
Apart from the northeast corner, Turkish fans turned the Westfalenstadion into a cauldron of red noise and while there were some Georgia fans in the Sudtribune, they were vastly outnumbered. Even an hour before kickoff and with the stadium only about a third full due to heavy rain, the booing of the Georgia starting line-up was deafening. The hostile atmosphere extended to fighting in the crowd and bottles thrown at Georgia’s corner-takers.
Turkey is seen as one of the dark horses of these European Championships. They were seen as dark horses in 2021 too, but they didn’t end up winning – three defeats, one goal scored and eight conceded.
In fact, before today, they had lost their opening matches in the five previous European Championships they’ve played in. Those games were against Italy, Croatia and Portugal so this time against Georgia, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, there was an air of expectation.
Turkey’s new-look side, the second youngest at the Euros, has some of Europe’s most promising up-and-coming stars in Real Madrid’s Arda Guler and Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz.
It was defender Mert Muldur who opened the scoring though with a contender for goal of the tournament, volleying the ball into the top corner right in front of the Turkish drummers in the Sudtribune.
Moments later the stadium erupted again as Yildiz thought he had made it two-nil. The goal was ruled out by VAR, leading to some of the loudest boos of the game, and while the smoke from the fan’s red flares was still settling, Georgia got an equalizer.
Much of the focus on the Georgian team has been on Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the undoubted star of the team, but fellow midfielder Giorgi Kochorashvili assisted Georgia’s goal, with some clever stepovers creating space for a pass to Georges Mikautadze to fire the ball low into the near corner.
Georgia, the lowest-ranked team at the Euros, created a defensive wall of their own which Turkey struggled to break down with their two-touch buildup play until a moment of magic from Guler shows why he is so highly rated.
Guler, who has already scored six LaLiga goals in just 373 minutes for Real Madrid this season, curled the ball from the right-hand side into the top corner to give Turkey the breakthrough.
Georgia had some great chances to equalize and even hit the post in injury time before Kerem Akturkoglu scored a breakaway goal at the death to raise the roof off the Westfalenstadion.
If Guler and Turkey’s other youngsters can produce more moments of magic, then Turkey’s effective “home advantage” could give them the edge in this tournament.
Midfielder Arda Guler (number 8) made his La Liga debut for Real Madrid at the end of January and has scored six LaLiga goals in just 373 minutes, an average of roughly one goal every hour, for Madrid.
Kenan Yildiz (number 19), born in Regensburg, could have played for Germany, instead, the Juventus striker scored against them in a 3-2 win last year.
That expectation was likely heightened by Turkiye opening the tournament against Georgia, on paper the weakest team at the Euros. Georgia only beat Cyprus in qualifying and earned their place at the tournament by beating Greece on penalties in the UEFA Nations League qualifying play-off path.
If Yildiz and Guler can fire, then Turkey could make the most of their effective “home advantage.”
