It’s time for another international break as the countdown to this summer’s UEFA Euro 2024 tournament truly begins across the continent. Some nations are gearing up for a big run, whereas others didn’t make the cut and simply want to rebuild ahead of World Cup qualifying. Today, we’ll be taking a look at what should be a pretty entertaining encounter between Austria and Turkey.
Austria Form GuideThey’ve always been a dangerous kind of opponent, but Austria haven’t quite been able to get over the hump and become a consistent force. The likes of David Alaba have always pushed hard for them to get to that next level but for now, they’re just a ‘middle of the road’ team in Europe, always striving to prove they can get out of the shadow of some of their neighbours.
Austria went on the road to battle Slovakia last week and, for the most part, it was a pretty flawless performance. They scored the quickest international goal of all time to take the lead against Slovakia, and from there, they didn’t really let their foot off the gas. They went on to pick up a fairly comfortable 2-0 victory, and you can tell they’re feeling really confident in themselves.
Turkey Form GuideIn the last 16 World Cups, Turkey have only qualified for the final tournament once - finishing in third place. In the Euros, however, they tend to have a bit more luck, having qualified for three of the last four editions. They did only manage to reach the group stage in the last two but at the very least, there’s a clear direction for them as a squad, especially with one of the most intimidating fanbases in world football.
Turkey took on Hungary last week and while they didn’t exactly look like their best selves, it was hardly a catastrophic performance. They had a few nice moments here and there but in the end, they fell to a 1-0 defeat that probably doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.
Match PredictionBoth Austria and Turkey are more than capable of shocking the masses on their best day and given how similar they are in terms of overall quality, we think this is going to be an interesting test for them ahead of the summer. In terms of a prediction, we’re going to shoot for a draw.
