Turkey failed to beat Luxembourg in its fifth Nations League match. In Istanbul it was 3-3. The Turks fell behind three times, but showed character and came alongside three times. Orkun Kökçü started in the starting lineup and was taken off ten minutes before the end. It was the first loss of points for the Turks after four wins. The team of national coach Stefan Kuntz was already certain of promotion to the Nations League B.
Kuntz started four well-known names with Kökçu, Ferdi Kadioglu, Halil Dervisoglu and Enes Ünal and surprised somewhat by not including a single Besiktas player in his selection. Before the game against Luxembourg, Turkey kept a clean sheet for the first time since 2006. Sixteen years ago, that then series started with a 1-0 victory over Luxembourg.
To the great Turkish shock, Luxembourg came through Marvin Martins at 0-1 after nine minutes after fumbling in the defense. Thanks to a utilized penalty by Cengiz Ünder, the score was level again five minutes later. The visitors did not leave it at that and after a little more than half an hour they even made it 1-2 through a goal from Danel Sinani. The Norwich City attacker was able to score easily because no one intervened with the Turks. Luxembourg couldn’t enjoy the lead for very long. A spinning ball from Kerem Akturkoglu was tapped behind his own goalkeeper by Maxime Chanot and brought the Turks alongside.
The home team also failed to make a fist in the second company. After twenty minutes of play it was former Telstar player Gerson Rodrigues who was completely free in the sixteen and was able to tap in a cross: 2-3. Again the defense of the Turks did not look good. Fortunately for Kuntz’s team, substitute Ismail Yuksek saved the honor just before time. With a nice swipe from outside the box, he put the 3-3 on the board and saved a point for Turkey.
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