Key events
A reminder of how both teams made it to this point. Truth be told, more often than not, group matches aren’t really worth reliving. These two were great fun, though.
The winner of this tie will play the Netherlands in a Berlin quarter-final on Saturday evening. Austria wouldn’t mind meeting the Dutch again so soon after last week’s 3-2 win; Ronald Koeman’s side would relish the chance to immediately right some wrongs. Exactly what to expect should Türkiye get through requires another level of imagination altogether: Türkiye and the Netherlands met twice in World Cup qualifying in 2021, the former winning 4-2 at home, the latter winning the reverse fixture 6-1. Good luck calling that, if we have to. Whoever goes through tonight, it could set up a doozy.
Austria make four changes to the XI that started the 3-2 win over the Netherlands. Kevin Danso, Phillipp Mwene, Christoph Baumgartner and Konrad Laimer are in; Maximilian Wöber, Alexander Prass and Florian Grillitsch drop to the bench, while Patrick Wimmer is suspended.
Türkiye make three changes to their starting line-up in the wake of their 2-1 victory over Czechia. Orkun Kökçü, Abdülkerim Bardakcı and Kaan Ayhan are in; Salih Özcan drops to the bench while both Samet Akaydin and captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu are suspended.
The teams
Austria: Pentz, Posch, Danso, Lienhart, Mwene, Seiwald, Schmid, Baumgartner, Laimer, Sabitzer, Arnautovic.
Subs: Lindner, Wober, Prass, Grillitsch, Gregoritsch, Hedl, Querfeld, Kainz, Daniliuc, Seidl, Weimann, Entrup, Grull.
Türkiye: Gunok, Muldur, Demiral, Bardakci, Kadioglu, Ayhan, Yuksek, Guler, Kokcu, Yildiz, Yilmaz.
Subs: Celik, Yokuslu, Akturkoglu, Tosun, Yazici, Bayindir, Kaplan, Ozcan, Kahveci, Cakir, Kilicsoy, Akgun, Yildirim.
Referee: Artur Soares Dias (Portugal).
Preamble
It’s Euro 2024’s big dark-horse showdown, between two sides harbouring genuine hopes of pulling off a Denmark-like or Greece-esque shock victory. Both countries have delivered rip-roaring entertainment: high-octane Austria looking more than any other like an actual team, Türkiye second to none in bringing equal quantities of visceral brilliance and The Noise. Could either of these teams go on to lift the Henri Delaunay Trophy next weekend? Sure, why not? Especially given the way the draw’s panned out.
Austria will perhaps be heading into this showdown with more confidence, on account of the 6-1 thrashing they dealt Türkiye just over three months ago in Vienna. But that was then, this is now, football doesn’t always follow logic like that, and while Austria have been putting on an expansive show, Türkiye have been lashing them in from all angles as well. A realistic route to the final has opened up for these two teams, and so this is teed up deliciously. Good luck, everyone, may the best team win, this could be a whole world of fun. Kick-off in Leipzig is at 8pm BST. It’s on!