Key events
6 min: Oh my. Bayinder picks out Hakan Calhanboglu with an excellernt kick-out and Turkey charge forward. Zeki Celik is picked out with a long diagonal to the right wing and whips a cross to the far post. Kerim Akturkoglu somehow fails to convert from two yards at the far post. That was a glorious chance for Turkey to take the lead.
5 min: Turkey win a throw-in deep inside the Portuguese half. Their fans are in the overwhelming majority in the stadium and are making one (welcome to) hell of a din.
4 min: Orkun Kokcu is penalised for a foul on Vitinha in the middle of the pitch. He caught the midfielder’s achilles tendon and it looked a sore one.
2 min: Portugal play the ball out from the back, their centre-halves split and standing at either side of the penalty area near the byline. They get it forward to Bernardo Silva, who sends in a low cross for Cristiano Ronaldo. He doesn’t get much power on his strike, which is easily saved by Bayinder.
Turkey v Portugal is go …
1 min: Portugal get the ball rolling, their skipper Cristiano Ronaldo doing the honours. Within seconds, the ball is at the feet of Turkey goalkeeper Altay Bayinder.
Not long now: Referee Felix Zwayer and his team of match officials lead the players of both sides out and they line up for the national anthems. The famous Yellow Wall at the stadium in Dortmund is red for the day that’s in it, the stand in question having been taken over by Turkey fans. If either team prevails in this game today, they will win Group F.
Pepe: A shout-out to Portugal’s centre-back, who will make his 139th appearance for Portugal this evening at the ripe old age of 41.
It’s a quite astonishing achievement for the footballing s-house other footballing s-housers call “the Guvnor”. He is, by all accounts, a lovely man off the pitch in real life and his 39-year-old teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who is about to make his 209th appearance for Portugal, is a spring chicken by comparison.
Today’s match officials
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Referee: Felix Zwayer
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Referee’s assistants: Stefan Lupp and Marco Achmuller.
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Fourth official: Jesús Gil Manzano
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Video assistant referee: Bastian Dankert
Those teams: Vincenzo Montella makes four changes to the side that beat Georgia. Manchester United reserve goalkeeper Altay Bayindir replaces Mert Gunok, while Zeki Celik, Kerem Akturkoglu and Yunus Akgun also come into the side.
Roberto Martinez makes one change to the Portugal side, with Fulham midfielder Palinha coming in to the side. Diogo Dalot drops to the bench.
Turkey v Portugal line-ups
Turkey: Bayindir, Celik, Akaydin, Kokcu, Akturkoglu, Calhanoglu, Bardakci, Kadioglu, Yilmaz, Ayhan, Akgun.
Subs: Demiral, Yokuslu, Guler, Tosun, Yazici, Kaplan, Ozcan, Yuksek, Muldur, Yildiz, Cakir, Kilicsoy, Yildirim.
Portugal: Costa, Mendes, Pepe, Dias, Cancelo, Fernandes, Vitinha, Palhinha, Leao, Ronaldo, Silva.
Subs: Patricio, Semedo, Dalot, Ramos, Felix, Sa, Pereira, Inacio, Neves, Luiz, Neves, Jota, Silva, Neto,Conceicao.
Georgia 1-1 Czech Republic
Group F: It’s ended all square in Hamburg, where Georgia substitute Saba Lobzhanidze missed a glorious chance to win all three points for his country with the final kick of the game.
The opportunity came against the run of play and Georgia had to dig deep. This result means nobody’s chances of making the knockout stages will be decided until the final round of games.
Early team news
There are concerns over the fitness of Turkey’s teenage midfielder Arda Guler, who was inspirational and scored one of the goals of the tournament so far, in his side’s win over Georgia. Otherwise, Vincenzo Montello has a full squad to choose from.
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez has no injury problems and may stick with the same line-up that started against the Czechs.
Preamble
The BVB Stadion Dortmund is the venue for today’s match between Turkey and Portugal, who both won their opening matches and will each be hoping to secure their passage into the knockout stages this afternoon with a game to spare.
Turkey beat Georgia in what was arguably the best game of the tournament so far, while Portugal needed a last-gasp Francisco Conceicao winner to secure their come-from-behind win over the Czech Republic. Kick-off in Dortmund is at 5pm (BST) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
