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Vincenzo Montella was mid-answer when a side door burst open and more than a dozen Turkey players and staff stormed his press conference, showering him with liquid. Within seconds he was bouncing up and down among them, the flimsy advertising banner behind him wobbling furiously. He had already been applauded into the room by travelling media for achieving what nobody in the previous two decades could: guiding one of football’s great enigmas to a World Cup and setting millions of hearts alight.
Dark horses? That will be the time-honoured joke about Turkey this summer given their propensity at recent European Championship appearances to fall short of their excitable billing. A quarter-final finish at Euro 2024 at least constituted progress and Montella, whose team did a professional job in spoiling what had been set up as a wild party for Kosovo, has the chance to back it up.
“It’s an incredible feeling, it’s beyond words,” a visibly thrilled Montella said. “Now we will continue on a beautiful path together.” Not even the news that his native Italy had wilted against Bosnia and Herzegovina, delivered to him as he prepared to begin his round of television interviews, could dampen the moment.
Montella could be delighted with a team that eschewed any stereotypes about losing their heads and managed a highly charged night expertly after Kerem Akturkoglu’s 53rd-minute winner. Kosovo were restricted to the occasional close call from range, squeezed out by a disciplined midfield that protected a solid central defence marshalled by Abdulkerim Bardakci. If thrills were few, Turkey made little attempt to provide them: this was about getting a job done at long last.
The question is whether a gifted generation will cut loose in North America, or if Montella has found a formula that works in tournament football. They hardly inspired in edging past Romania to get this far but that does not matter when, as in the past week, knife-edge cup ties come thick and fast. In Kenan Yildiz, the best player on the pitch in Pristina, they have a burgeoning superstar but some of his teammates seemed straitjacketed. Arda Guler’s input was conservative and Montella’s propensity for eschewing a recognised centre-forward, the winger Akturkoglu nominally occupying that position, may not translate well against top opposition.
It should at least be enough to guide them through a World Cup group containing USA, Australia and Paraguay. After that all bets are off; this side do not feel as hardened as the 2002 vintage, who finished third in Japan and South Korea, but maybe Montella’s macho description this week of his players as “real men” had an underlying point. This time around, Turkey looked steady and tough.
Kosovo, several decades behind in their football development and 86 million short in population, are developing those traits at warp speed. Pristina had been primed to celebrate through the night if their team broke unimaginable new ground; this Kosovo side, more tactically alern that some of their predecessors, could have won if Fisnik Asllani’s first-half strike had not been tipped against the bar by Ugurcan Cakir. They gave few chances away, carried a threat throughout and will surely be back. Their rise since being allowed to play official matches in 2014 is little short of extraordinary.
In Asllani they have nurtured a multifaceted forward coveted by much of Europe, while the young defenders Dion Gallapeni and Albian Hajdari have big futures. Occasions such as a World Cup playoff should turn the heads of players from the diaspora whose international loyalties may have been torn. The infrastructure is slowly improving; plans for a new national stadium in nearby Drenas continue to simmer and Kosovo are becoming a long-term bet.
Their achievement was marked on Wednesday morning by a medal of merit from the country’s president, Vjosa Osmani. “Despite last night’s result they gave our entire nation something even more valuable: hope,” she said. It would have been especially meaningful to compete in the US, whose flag was raised around Fadil Vokrri Stadium for the game on Tuesday night. The gratitude held in Kosovo for American help in paving their route to independence is heartfelt and visible in several street names around Pristina. Admiration extends both ways. “What you achieved is truly extraordinary and unforgettable,” a social media post from the US embassy said of the national team’s performance.
It will be Turkey, though, who cross the Atlantic and look for their own fresh superlatives. They have won 16 of their 24 matches during Montella’s two and a half years in charge and momentum is building. Once the manager had dried off, the opportunity ahead could sink in.
