Despite losing to France, Vincenzo Montella encouraged Türkiye to maintain its excellent spirit of unity.

Turkey lost 0-1 to France in their opening group stage match of the 2026/27 UEFA Nations League Group A, after conceding a second-half goal and receiving a red card for goalkeeper Çağlar. Vincenzo Montella stated that while failing to secure a winning start was regrettable, he encouraged the team to maintain their excellent team spirit.

During the match, France launched a counter-attack after taking the lead in the 54th minute. Olise passed the ball diagonally into the penalty area, and Mbappe received the ball and scored with a low shot, giving France a 1-0 lead.

In the 85th minute, Turkish goalkeeper Çakır came out of the penalty area to clear the ball and his hand came into contact with the ball. The referee showed Çakır a red card for this, and Turkey then substituted goalkeeper Baindır for Yilmaz.

Ultimately, Türkiye lost 0-1 to Zidane's France at home.

Turkish coach Vincenzo Montella said, "I am very proud, but it is a pity that we were unable to leave the stadium with a positive result. It was an incredible performance and one of our best games, especially considering who our opponents were."

“We all know that against a team like this, even half a mistake can be costly, but I think we also created our chances, and it was a very close game.”

Vincenzo Montella emphasized, "I saw an outstanding team spirit, which is exactly the quality we need to bring into the upcoming matches. It's not easy to recover physically and mentally in such a short time, so we need to maintain this spirit first. I feel sorry for my players because they really gave their all."

Furthermore, Turkish captain Melih Demiral stated, "We are very disappointed; this result does not reflect the true situation of the game. We played very well at the start of the second half. It's a pity we conceded a goal."

"Even when we were down to 10 men, we still had chances to score. We still have three games to play, and hopefully we can achieve good results and then move on."

Image source: Internet