Julius Okorie
Netherlands and Turkey lock horns later tonight in the last quarterfinal clashes of the ongoing Euro 2024 Championship in Germany.
The mighty have fallen with hosts out, Portugal out. In a matter of hours from now either England or Switzerland will hit the exit door as there are only provision for two more teams in the semifinals with Spain and France already on ground.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelOn paper, one could say give it to Netherlands tonight without blinking the eyes, why? In 14 meetings between the two sides, Netherlands have won as against Turkey’s four with four games drawn. On FIFA ranking, Netherlands are 7th in the world while Turkey occupy lowly 42 on the log, a huge lacuna in between you may want to say, but like they say football is like biscuits you never know from which angle it breaks. There is always room for upsets in every championship and this one is not an exception.
Netherlands nervy qualification in third sport in their group was followed by their best performance of Euro 2024 in the last round when they beat Romania 3-0 in a comprehensive victory.
Turkey, among the most entertaining teams to watch in Germany, dominated their round of 16 tie against Austria, but in the end, only edged the victory 2-1.
READ ALSO Euro 2024: Q/finals Pairings Set As Netherlands, Turkey Advance
Victory would set up a clash with either Switzerland or England in the final four, and after coming through the previous round in contrasting fashion, both teams will fancy their chance of progressing.
Ronald Koeman is honing in on repeating a feat from his playing days, when he was part of the squad that produced the nation’s only major men’s trophy to date: a European Championship winner in 1988, the former Barcelona boss is intent on doing it all again 36 years later as head coach.
With Xavi Simons starting to fulfill his potential, and Gakpo picking up two ‘Man of the Match’ awards and battling it out for the Golden Boot, Oranje fans are starting to dream; however, tonight’s opponents have already proven their mettle.
With the Dutch dominating possession against Romania and Turkey happy to let Austria have the ball and hit them on the counter, Berlin’s Olympiastadion is likely to see more of the same, with plenty of young talent on display.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
