Netherlands v Turkey: Line-ups confirmed as Euro 2024 semi-finals await
The Netherlands and Turkey go head-to-head in the final Euro 2024 quarter-final on Saturday night.
A place in the semi-finals is the prize with both sides fancying their chances of winning a historic championship in Germany.
The Dutch have not been at their best level in the tournament so far, but yet remain three wins away from silverware.
They overcame Romania in the last 16, comfortably in the end, but face another tough test in Turkey.
They have been a surprise package so far having failed to live up to the hype in the last Euros, but are now flourishing under head coach Vincenzo Montella.
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Neither side will want to tinker with their line-ups too much, but Turkey will have to find a way to replace Merih Demiralk, who scored both goals against Austria.
Captain Hakan Calhanoglu returns from suspension but midfielders Orkun Kokcu and Ismail Yuksek will have to sit out having picked up two yellow cards.
Eight more Turkish players are at risk of a suspension should they be cautioned, including Real Madrid star Arda Guler.
The Dutch do not have as many problems, with only three players at risk of missing out on a potential semi-final â although one of them is wing-back Denzel Dumfries.
Head coach Ronald Koeman said earlier in the week that Nathan Ake will need to have a late fitness test, despite training in the days building up to this match.
Netherlands: Verbruggen, Dumfries, de Vrij, van Dijk, Ake, Schoeten, Reijnders, Bergwijn, Simons, Gakpo, Depay
Turkey: Gunok, Muldur, Akaydin, Bardakci, Kadioglu, Ayhan, Ozcan, Yilmaz, Calhanoglu, Yildiz, Gule
Koeman admits he does not know why the Netherlandsâ performances have been so inconsistent but is adamant that they will turn up against Turkey.
He said: âSometimes itâs difficult to explain why you play badly in one game and why you reach a high level in another.
â[Against Romania] the start was hard, but we eventually found our game and caused them problems. Maybe one critical point was that it took too long to score the second goal. The final result is always the most important thing.
âWeâre Dutch, though, and we have to play well. The whole performance [against Romania] was outstanding.â
Turkey boss Montella praised his opponents for the quarter-finals and played down Turkeyâs chances of making it to the last four.
He added: âThe Netherlands are a very talented team like us so it will be a tough match.
âWe are one of the teams with the least tournament experience, so we are all the happier to have come this far.
âI donât believe in formations, but I do believe in tactics. We try to change from match to match according to our opponents.â