Montella needs Turkey to keep heads with revenge against Austria in sight
A 6-1 humiliation in March is still on their minds with a place in the quarter-finals at stake in clash of dark horses
The footage is enough to inflict sleepless nights upon anyone following Turkey. They were pulverised by Austria three months ago in Vienna and the knives were immediately out for Vincenzo Montella. It was always going to be that way after losing 6-1 and the question took no time in coming: would he quit? “I want to ask you this, do you resign when asking a wrong question?” he responded. “It is an unnecessary provocation.”
That was a no, then. Montella remains firmly in situ and has a new opportunity to find the right answers in Leipzig on Tuesday night. The stakes are infinitely higher, a quarter-final spot the prize, and the lessons are there to be acted upon. For starters exhibit one showed what not to do against Ralf Rangnick’s team, Salih Ozcan dwelling on the ball inside 100 seconds and a hurtling Romano Schmid pressing him into oblivion to create the opening goal.
