Was really disappointed in Turkey in this one just because I think you can get at this Italy team, two senior citizens at CB with fullbacks getting forward and Jorginho inspires little confidence as a sole DM (there's a reason Tuchel always partners him with one of Kante or Kovacic). Instead they appeared content to bunker around their box with an immobile target forward doing absolutely fuck all against two big, strong, and smart defenders. From their one or two sparks, they needed to get speedy players into the channels and seemed completely unable how to figure out how do to so and only made halftime unscathed because the Italians seemed convinced that shooting as soon as they could make out the goal was a good strategy.
It's the halftime adjustments that turned the game, Mancini (whose suit was designed by Armani for the tournament apparently) got his team to get the ball toward the byline before cutting it back, which is how they scored the first goal, while the Turks seemed to believe that they could keep doing what they had been, and once it was clear that they couldn't, were up the proverbial creek.
That said, I'd be shocked if Turkey didn't come out breathing fire in their next two group games, as surely they have to if they want to advance, Italy - Wales has a very good chance of being a repeat of this game, and Italy - Switzerland could be quite good with Embolo quite capable of getting into the space that Italy are leaving open.
It's the halftime adjustments that turned the game, Mancini (whose suit was designed by Armani for the tournament apparently) got his team to get the ball toward the byline before cutting it back, which is how they scored the first goal, while the Turks seemed to believe that they could keep doing what they had been, and once it was clear that they couldn't, were up the proverbial creek.
That said, I'd be shocked if Turkey didn't come out breathing fire in their next two group games, as surely they have to if they want to advance, Italy - Wales has a very good chance of being a repeat of this game, and Italy - Switzerland could be quite good with Embolo quite capable of getting into the space that Italy are leaving open.
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