EURO 2024 | Austria 1-2 Turkey: Montella and Demiral masterclass

Italian coach Vincenzo Montella has taken Turkey to the EURO 2024 quarter-finals after taking revenge on Marko Arnautovic’s Austria with a brace from ex-Atalanta defender Merih Demiral.

They will face the Netherlands on Saturday evening in Munich.

Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu was suspended, along with defender Samet Akaydin, so Montella unleashed Juventus teenager Kenan Yildiz and Real Madrid starlet Arda Guler. Austria topped their group ahead of France and the Netherlands, with Inter striker Marko Arnautovic upfront and Bologna’s Stefan Posch in defence, but Patrick Wimmer sat out a ban.

There was tension around this match, as in the March warm-ups for the tournament Austria had beaten Turkey 6-1 in a friendly, sparking calls for Montella to be sacked.

It was an astonishing start, as former Juventus, Sassuolo and Atalanta defender Merih Demiral opened the scoring after 57 seconds. The Austrian defending on the Arda Guler corner was absolutely chaotic, allowing Demiral to pounce from four yards.

Christoph Baumgartner drilled inches wide moments later and an Austrian corner bobbled across the face of goal, Demiral just preventing Baumgartner from bundling over the line.

After the restart, Mert Gunok made a decisive save one-on-one with Arnautovic, but Turkey doubled their lead with Demiral’s glancing header from another Arda Guler corner, the defender completing his brace.

Austria got back into it with a corner flicked on by Bologna defender Posch to the back post, where Michael Gregoritsch fired into the roof of the net, sparking a late siege.

Turkey held on under constant pressure and almost got their own goal too with a pair of failed Baris Alper Yilmaz counter-attacks, but at the 95^th minute Mert Gunok made a simply astounding reaction save on Baumgartner from point-blank range.

Demiral 1, 59 (T), Gregoritsch 66 (A)