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Burak Yilmaz (left) is called "kraal" in Turkey, king.
He just shot the Lille OSC in France to the title.
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Turkey: Young team, old heroes
No European Championship participant has a younger squad than Turkey (at 9 p.m. against Italy; TV: ARD; Stream: MagentaTV): The average age of the team is only 25 years.
Nevertheless, the highest hopes of the Turks, who are definitely the secret favorites at the European Championship, are on two men who are 104 years old together: Şenol Güneş, 69, and Burak Yilmaz, 35.
With Güneş, the most successful coach in the association's history returned to the coaching bench in 2019, who sensationally led a team around storm veteran Hakan Şükür to bronze at the 2002 World Cup.
Yilmaz not only shares a nickname with Şükür - »Kral«, in English: King - he could also become a similar formative figure at the European Championship tournament as the national hero of that time.
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AC Milan playmaker Hakan Çalhanoğlu
Photo: FRIEDEMANN VOGEL / EPA
Yilmaz scored 16 goals for Lille OSC last season to win the championship title in France, and scored three goals for the national team in March in a 4-2 victory over the Netherlands.
With the offensive free spirit Yusuf Yazici and right-back Zeki Çelik, two more games for the championship team from Lille are in the squad.
Goalkeeper Yilmaz will be fed by playmaker Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who played an equally strong season at AC Milan as the team's key defensive player, central defender Çağlar Söyüncü (Leicester City).
Group A is likely to be the second most difficult of the tournament after the German one - this is also due to the strong Turkish team.
Italy: The unbeatable (for three years)
After the missed World Cup qualification in 2018, the Italian national team is back on the big football stage.
In Rome, she can play the opening game in front of a home crowd.
And not only that, she is even a candidate for the title - even if she competes with almost no big names.
Sure, they are still there, the eternal Juventus grandees Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci.
The aging world-class central defenders are holding their own against the top talent Alessandro Bastoni from Master Inter, who is pushing into the team.
However, coach Roberto Mancini has rebuilt the team around it - and so successfully that Italy has not lost an international match for three years.
The poisonous, but at the same time technically shod eighth, Nicòlo Barella, could become a star of this European Championship as well as goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
But even more than the boys in the team, the way Mancini gets the best out of the now 30-year-old Lorenzo Insigne is impressive.
The only 1.63 meter tall ball artist from SSC Napoli is allowed to play his parade role, moves from the left wing to the center again and again and becomes creative.
And because the rest of the team is perfectly matched to Insignes style of play, Mancini's trust is bearing fruit: Insigne has always prepared a goal in the last five international matches.
In any case, Italy is playing much more pleasantly than in previous years - and should only get stronger if the currently injured midfield technician Marco Verratti joins the team in the course of the tournament.
