How Montella shocked Rangnick and gave Turkey a triumphant revenge at EURO 2024

Vincenzo Montella has been in charge of the Turkish national team for just nine months and 12 games, but he surprised Ralf Rangnick by reaching the quarter-finals of the European Championship.

The 50-year-old Italian only took up his post on September 21, 2023, just three weeks after Luciano Spalletti was appointed Italy coach.

It was only his 12th birthday^th He played a prominent role in charge of the Turkish national team, having started with a 1-0 qualifying win over Croatia in October, and some called for his sacking in March after a 6-1 friendly defeat to Rangnick’s Austria.

However, he got his revenge with a 2-1 victory thanks to a brace from former Juventus, Atalanta and Sassuolo defender Merih Demiral, as well as Mert Gunok’s astonishing last-minute save from Christoph Baumgartner’s header.

Montella has now won five, drawn two and lost four for Turkey, but the most important statistic is that they are through to the quarter-finals of EURO 2024, where they will face the Netherlands on Saturday in Munich.

Montella surprised Rangnick with his changes

The coach completely surprised Rangnick tonight, forced into changes because Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu and defender Samet Akaydin were suspended.

Montella abandoned the 4-2-3-1 formation and moved them to a 3-4-3 with Arda Guler effectively acting as a false 9 flanked by Juventus winger Kenan Yildiz and Baris Alper Yilmaz.

This allowed them to defend with five and quickly go on the counter-attack, especially as Kaan Ayhan played as a defender at Sassuolo and as a midfielder here.

They also alternated different ways of playing out from the back to evade Rangnick’s characteristic high pressure, including some impressive long passes from the goalkeeper.

It is worth noting that both of Demiral’s goals came from Arda Guler corners, so Turkey may well have someone ready to challenge Calhanoglu’s dominance of these set-piece situations.

Turkey have won three of their four matches at EURO 2024 so far, beating Georgia 3-1 and the Czech Republic 2-1, only losing 3-0 to Portugal after some truly shambolic defensive errors.