Turkey will host Montenegro on Tuesday in the latest World Cup 2022 qualifier as they look to continue their unbeaten start in Group G and keep hold of their top spot.
However, the visitors must look to respond to a defeat during their last international performance, as they hope to put pressure on their opponents and the Netherlands, who both sit ahead of them.
Match preview
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After a disappointing Euro 2020 campaign, Turkey must now look to put the summer behind them in a bid to qualify for the upcoming World Cup as they prepare for a trio of qualification games.
Senol Gunes was left with work to do following the recent international tournament that saw his team crash out at the group stage, finishing bottom without picking up a single point.
Turkey were comfortably defeated 3-0 in the opening game by Italy, before losing 2-0 to Wales and then 3-1 in their final game against Switzerland, with only Irfan Kahveci managing to score in Euro 2020.
The Turkish FA publicly came out and backed their manager following the tournament though, making it clear that he is the man to lead them to the World Cup, which is something that must now be delivered.
Despite the frustrations that came with the tournament, Gunes's squad are currently top of their World Cup 2022 qualifying group, having picked up a draw and two victories so far.
Turkey have proven to be attack-minded within the three games they have played, scoring 10 goals already, which did include an impressive 4-2 victory against the Netherlands in the opening fixture, as talisman Burak Yilmaz scored a hat-trick.
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The Crescent-Stars are not the only team heading into this game looking to return to winning ways though, as Montenegro were also defeated during their last outing.
A 3-1 loss against Israel is something they will be hoping to quickly rectify here, but Miodrag Radulovic will have to bring more out of his attackers in order to make that happen, with the squad having only scored once in the last three games.
The last time the two teams met was back in 2018, which was an international friendly that saw them battle out a 2-2 draw with an 87th-minute strike from Stefan Mugosa stopping Turkey from getting the win that day.
Montenegro were beaten in their last World Cup 2022 qualifying game, which saw them lose 1-0 to Norway, but they do find themselves third in the group at the moment after an impressive start.
Radulovic's squad put together two victories against Latvia and Gibraltar which has helped keep them in contention, with a victory against Turkey having the potential to see them go top of the group.
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Team News
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Unfortunately for Turkey they will be without Leicester City defender Caglar Soyuncu for this game due to COVID-19 restrictions in England stopping him from making the journey.
However, experienced striker Yilmaz will be set to lead the line as he hopes to continue his impressive form in front of goal for his nation.
Montenegro called up 29 players for the upcoming World Cup 2022 qualification games with important squad members such as Adam Marusic and Nikola Vukcevic all making the cut.
Radulovic did attempt to bring Esteban Saveljich back into the group for these games, but he actually turned down the opportunity after being kept out of his national team for the last five years.
There has also been a big blow for Montenegro as captain Stevan Jovetic has had to pull out of the upcoming games due to an injury.
Turkey possible starting lineup:
Gunok; Celik, Demiral, Mudur, Mbabu; Ahyan, Under, Tufan, Kahveci, Calhanoglu; Yilmaz
Montenegro possible starting lineup:
Mijatovic; Marusic, Vujacic, Savic, Tomasevic; Lagator, Haksabanovic, Scekic, Kosovic; Durdevic, Beciraj
We say: Turkey 2-1 Montenegro
There is real pressure on Turkey in this game to immediately get back to positive results after a poor Euro 2020 and with the quality within their squad, that is something they should be able to do.
Gunes has put together a very attacking team and considering the fact that Montenegro have struggled for goals lately, the Crescent-Stars should have enough to earn three points.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Turkey win with a probability of 56.17%. A draw had a probability of 25.8% and a win for Montenegro had a probability of 17.98%.
The most likely scoreline for a Turkey win was 1-0 with a probability of 15.9%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (12.12%) and 2-1 (8.92%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.69%), while for a Montenegro win it was 0-1 (7.67%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 3.3% likelihood.
