Euro 2016 Qualifiers: Turkey vs Czech Republic preview

October 9, 2014
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Turkey vs Czech RepWhile riots are raging across Turkey, the national team will have no choice but to focus on the Euro 2016 qualifier against Czech Republic, as they cannot afford any more setbacks.

The Czechs enjoyed a stunning start to the qualifying campaign, having defeated Netherlands at home, and they will fancy their chances against injury-hit Turks.

The national team chiefs are doing their best to try and help the team return to old glory days, but there have been very little success of late.

Turkey have now failed to qualify for last three tournament finals and the latest developments are enough to suggest they might miss out on the Euro 2016 as well.

In spite of some very good results in international friendlies, Fatih Terim’s side enjoyed a nightmare start to the qualifying campaign, suffering a 3-0 defeat to average Iceland side.

This means they have got to try and defeat Czech Republic instead, but I see no value in odds of 2.25 (5/4) offered on home win and here is why.

First of all, it will be very difficult for the players and fans to focus on the game in question amidst huge riots in the country, but that is not the only problem at the moment.

The fact that Omer Toprak (also suspended), Hakan Calhanoglu, Volkan Demirel, Burak Yilmaz, Mustafa Pektemek and Kaan Ayhan were forced to withdraw due to injury means the hosts will be missing half of the starting line-up.

Probable starting line-up (3-4-2-1): Kivrak – Gulum, Topal, Kaya – Gonul, Inan, Emre, Erkin – Adin, Turan – Bulut.

Czech Republic have enjoyed plenty of success at European Championship tournaments in the past and they are hoping for sixth straight qualification.

Despite struggling in warm-up games, the Czechs puled quite a coup by defeating World Cup semi-finalists Netherlands in their opening fixture, courtesy of injury-time goal by Vaclav Pilar.

As a result, they go into the Turkey clash full of confidence, and given the problems their opponents face at the moment, odds of 3.50 (5/2) offered on away win do look tempting.

Jaroslav Plasil, Tomas Necid and Tomas Sivok return to the side, with Petr Cech and Tomas Rosicky included despite the lack of playing time on club level.

Lukas Vacha is doubtful with an ankle problem, but there are no other worries for coach Pavel Vrba, who is unlikely to make too many changes to the side that defeated Netherlands.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Cech – Kaderabek, Prochazka, Kadlec, Limbersky – Darida, Plasil – Dockal, Rosicky, Pilar – Lafata.

We Highly Recommend These Places
Share your Opinion!