Turkey vs Italy | Euro 2020 | A brief report

The much anticipated Euro 2020 (being held in the summer of 2021, which is surely a trivia question further down the line) got off to an amazing start on the 11th of June. A new-look, attacking Italian side under the former Man City boss Roberto Mancini took on a Turkey side with some exceptionally talented individuals who play at a very high level, namely Soyuncu (Leicester), Calhanoglu (AC Milan), and 2020/21 Ligue 1 winning duo at Lille, Yilmaz and Yazici.

Italy boast what is probably their best attacking unit this decade. With pacey and technical wingers in Insigne, Chiesa and Berardi and two of the most in-form strikers in Immobile and Belotti. They have also (finally) replace Gigi Buffon with the PSG-bound Donnarumma and have a young Alessandro Bastoni to complement the experienced CB duo of Chiellini and Bonucci. 

However, the area where Italy truly have upgraded their squad the most is the midfield, which now boasts some of the best midfield talents in the world. They have a deep-lying metronome in Jorginho, the dynamic Marco Verratti (although he is injured for the first few games), a brilliant two-way midfielder & the 2020/21 Seria A winner Nicolo Barella, and my personal favorite, Manual Locatelli.

The Game

I quite openly named Turkey as my underdog for the tournament, but this match wasn't really a good mark for that claim. Italy cruised through the game without breaking a sweat, dominating the game with 63% possession and taking 24 (!!!) shots to Turkey's measly 3. The first half ended 0-0, with Italy taking a lot of shots but not many being big opportunities as the Turks limited them to speculative shots from outside the box.

Italy set up in a 4-3-3 formation on paper, but during their build-up phase, they formed a back three of Chiellini, Bonucci, and Florenzi with Spinazzola on the left being given the freedom to hold the touchline and attack. This is reflected in his heatmap as well -

Contrast this with Florenzi's heatmap -

You can see how he didn't venture forward a lot and was more focused on helping Italy build their passing game from a deeper position. Mancini tweaked this and brought on Napoli's, and in my opinion the much better right-back option, Giovanni Di Lorenzo -

This substitution changed the game dynamic entirely. Jorginho dropped deep to facilitate buildup and Lorenzo started bombing down the wing, which meant Berardi could move centrally alongside Immobile. This gave them a much better platform to break down Turkey's low block and they soon reaped the rewards when a Demiral own-goal gave the Italians a well-deserved lead.

Jorginho's heatmap reflects this change as you can see how he held possession deep inside is on half and slightly towards the right half -

Once that goal went in, it was simply a case of how many can Italy score. The front three of Italy (Berardi, Immobile, and Insigne) took a combined 15 shots with the latter two adding a goal each further in the game.

This was also the first time I watched Locatelli play live, and it was a treat. He kept things simple and ticking throughout the game, completing 55 passes with an 87% accuracy. He was deployed on the left of the midfield three -

Turkey's Future

In hindsight, maybe the Turks were too defensive for their own sake. Calhanoglu, their chief creator, could only complete 36 passes and a single key-pass. Turkey were pushed so far back into their own half that they could barely create any significant chances to score, except a couple of times when Yilmaz got behind the opposition defence.

Yokuslu was perhaps their best player, completing 5 tackles and interceptions in the match. He also made 4 clearances, 2 blocks, and completed 2 dribbles. Cengiz Under injected some spark when he came on, but it didn't result in anything substantial.

It wasn't a good showing, but I would still not discount them just yet. They have a lot of individual quality capable of single-handedly winning them games and I expect them to still cause some upsets as the tournament goes on.