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       How Montella shocked Rangnick for triumphant Turkey revenge at EURO
       2024
        
 (HTM) Source
        
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       Vincenzo Montella has been in charge of the Turkey national team for
       just nine months and 12 games, but he surprised Ralf Rangnick to reach
       the European Championship quarter-finals.
        
       The 50-year-old Italian only took the job on September 21, 2023, just
       three weeks after Luciano Spalletti was appointed the coach of Italy.
        
       This was only his 12 at the helm of the Turkish national team, having
       started with a 1-0 qualifying win away to Croatia in October, and
       there were calls for him to be fired in March after a 6-1 friendly
       defeat to Rangnick's Austria.
        
       However, he got sweet revenge with this 2-1 victory thanks to a brace
       from former Juventus, Atalanta and Sassuolo defender Merih Demiral,
       plus the astonishing last-gasp save from Mert Gunok on Christoph
       Baumgartner's header.
        
       Montella has now overseen five wins, two draws and four defeats for
       Turkey, but the most important statistic is that they are in the
       quarter-finals of EURO 2024, where they will face the Netherlands on
       Saturday in Munich.
        
       ## Montella stunned Rangnick with changes
        
       The coach completely surprised Rangnick this evening, forced into
       changes because Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu and defender Samet
       Akaydin were suspended.
        
       Montella scrapped the 4-2-3-1 formation and moved them to a 3-4-3 with
       Arda Guler effectively acting like a False 9 flanked by Juventus
       winger Kenan Yildiz and Baris Alper Yilmaz.
        
       It allowed them to defend with five and then go rapidly on the
       counter-attack, especially as Kaan Ayhan played as a defender at
       Sassuolo and a midfielder here.
        
       They also alternated different ways of playing out from the back to
       evade the trademark Rangnick high press, including some impressive
       long passes from the goalkeeper.
        
       Notably, both Demiral goals came from in-swinging Arda Guler corners,
       so Turkey may well have someone ready to challenge Calhanoglu's
       dominance of those set play situations.
        
       Turkey have won three of their four games in EURO 2024 so far, beating
       Georgia 3-1 and the Czech Republic 2-1, losing only 3-0 to Portugal
       after some truly chaotic defensive errors.
        
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