Croatia Falls At Home, Montella Takes Turkey To The Top Of The Standings

Turkish players celebrate the victory over Croatia in the Euro 2024 qualifying match. (Twitter @@MilliTakemlar)

JAKARTA - The Italian coach Vincenzo Montella's brilliant debut brought Turkey to the top of Group D after defeating Croatia 1-0 in the Euro 2024 qualifying match at the Opus Arena, Friday, October 13 in the morning WIB. Turkey's single goal was produced by striker Baris Yilmaz.

Turkey achieved impressive results in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. How not, they won in away matches.

And, Turkey also broke Croatia's unbeaten record. Yes, this is Croatia's first defeat at home in qualifying.

The victory became Montella's impressive debut. The former Italian national team striker was questioned because the squad he handled was deemed not to have good quality.

Montella appointed to replace Stefan Kuntz did have to work hard to rebuild the squad.

The result was not disappointing. In that match, Turkey beyond expectations played quite nicely.

Montella apparently managed to bring the team to show character and discipline in away matches.

Even Turkey has shown dominance over the host and is able to play at high tempo. This game is indeed a hassle for Croatia, which still relies on the veteran, Luka Modric.

In the middle, Modric worked hand in hand with Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic. Meanwhile, Petar Musa strikers received support from Mario Pasalic and Josip Brekalo.

Turkey itself has no star players. Inter Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu became the motor of The Crescent-Star's game to face Croatia.

In that duel, Croatia, who played at home, failed to show its best performance.

Even the finalists of the 2018 World Cup and Nations League are playing badly. There was no attack that endangered the Turkish goal. There is no game creativity even though the team has relied on Modric, who is Croatia's creative midfielder.

Turkey itself had a chance in the early minutes when it got a corner. But Dominik goalkeeper Livakovic managed to thwart Turkey's chances when the game had only been running for two minutes.

The visitors had another chance in the seventh minute. But again Livakovic made a brilliant save.

Croatia actually also had a chance to score. It's just that the weak final finish made their chances unable to be converted into goals.

Turkey was the one who successfully broke into Croatia's goal in ment 30. Starting from the mistake of the Croatian player who lost the ball in the middle.

The situation was exploited by Montella's troops when Salih Oezcan fired a long pass at Yilmaz. The opportunity was put to good use to beat Livakovic.

The score changed to 1-0 for Turkey. In the second half, Croatia tried to get up. At least Brekalo's shot almost broke into the Turkish goal.

But Turkey almost added a goal in the 53rd minute. Unfortunately Yilmaz's shot bounced narrowly over the crossbar. The score of one goal for Turkey did not change until the end of the match.

The victory made Turkey take the top spot in Group D with 13 points. Meanwhile, Croatia, which has 10 points, has dropped to second place. However, Croatia still has one match left.