TURKEY STRUGGLING THROUGH

The Turkish national team manager Abdullah Avcı will be without the services of the influential Fenerbahçe midfielder Gökhan Gönül for the match against Hungary. Turkey will be taking on Hungary in the World Cup qualifying matches tomorrow after having been recently defeated 1-0 by Romania.

The 1-0 defeat only a few days ago adds more pressure to the manager Abdullah Avcı. However, he will have to do without the services of Gökhan Gönül, who is regarded as one of the best players for Turkey over the last few years. Aside from this, he is also suffering from a long list of injuries to key players ahead of this match.

It has not been a great qualifying season for the manager after he has recently seen the nation lose in the first World Cup qualifying match against Netherlands. They then followed that with a respectable 3-0 win over Estonia, but the victory has now been rendered useless following the 1-0 defeat against Romania. As result of this defeat, Turkey must now definitely win the match against Hungary in order to have any chance of progressing. Even though it is still the early stage, the Turkish manager Abdullah Avcı feels that other teams will pull away from them if they do not take a victory against Hungary.

“I believe that I was not wrong in my player choices, the choice belongs to me and my team. Losing is a part of the game and today we lost. Nuri is one of the most valuable players in this country and the national team. He has been taking more time since his transfer to Liverpool, and that is an advantage for us. Nuri is one of the players who will wear this team’s jersey,” said the Turkish national team manager after the match against Romania.