Montella pictures ‘beautiful path’ as Turkey embrace return to World Cup

Italian manager guided his team past Kosovo in their playoff final, with Kenan Yildiz a burgeoning superstar

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.

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