Euro 2020: The curious case of Turkey, from dark horses to early elimination

In football, predictions and permutations tend to go wrong, especially when it comes to tournaments.

Ahead of the start of Euro 2020, almost everyone was buoyant about the chances of Turkey. They were never the favorites but they were meant to be one of the dark horses.

The Crescent-Stars had been in imperious form during the qualifiers but they failed to replicate that form in the tournament.

In truth, Turkey have been one of the worst teams at Euro 2020 and this comes as a huge surprise, considering the talented squad that they boast.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Superb Wales make it 4 points from 2 games by beating Turkey in Baku! 👏👏👏#EURO2020 | #WAL

— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 16, 2021

Turkey lose all three group games

Senol Gunes must have had high hopes for his side when he guided them to the tournament. However, it’s been one major disappointment after another.

Turkey lost woefully to Italy in their opening group game. They followed it up with another no-show against Wales, where they suffered a 2-0 defeat.

Despite losing two games, the Crescent-Stars still had a chance of qualifying for the last 16. All they had to do was convincingly beat Switzerland in their final group game. That, though, proved to be an insurmountable task.

The Turks were once again battered as they lost 3-1 to Xherdan Shaqiri and Co. to exit the tournament with a record of three defeats from three matches.

This sums up Turkey in Euro 2020, so sad :( Our worst ever tournament performance pic.twitter.com/RdDEIZkgDf

— FPL Wombat (@WombatFpl) June 20, 2021

From dark horses to early exit

The sight of Turkey sitting at the bottom of Group A must have come as a surprise to many football fans and pundits, many of whom had tipped them for greater things.

From the lofty expectations of being considered dark horses, this talented Turkey team just couldn’t live up to the billing. Rather, they’ve suffered the ignominy of getting eliminated without a single win.

“It is zero points and no goals and we are very sad on our part. We are sorry and we know the expectations of the nation are on us. We were really below those expectations,” Gunes admitted, as quoted by The Independent.

“After the first game against Italy it felt like it was the end of the world and we have to get over this failure. We could have overcome this in the second game and if we had, things would be much different.”

It’s been a tournament to forget for the Turks despite all their potential. The Crescent-Stars simply failed to come to the party and were a disaster from day one, rather than the conquerors that everyone expected them to be.

That is quite a curious case, isn't it?

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