Italian coach Vincenzo Montella, the national coach of Turkey, declared on Monday that Tuesday's match against Spain in Seville "is an important match for" his team and "will not be like a friendly", despite the top two spots in Group E of the World Cup Qualifiers virtually being decided before this final-day clash.

"We want to win every match we play. We have prepared everything very well and will do everything possible to achieve the positive result we are looking for," said Montella, whose team would need to beat Spain by seven goals to knock them off the only spot that guarantees a direct place at the World Cup.

The Neapolitan coach, speaking at the press conference at the La Cartuja stadium, where the match will be played, said that he has "obtained the results he wanted in the group", in which he has won all his matches, "except in the first leg" against Spain (0-6), and celebrated having "scored 15 goals in the last five matches".

"Was there ever a time in the past when this figure was reached?" asked the former Sevilla coach, who was in charge for a few months in the 2017-18 season, during which he had his compatriot Enzo Maresca, now the Chelsea coach, as a member of his technical staff.

Vincenzo Montella warned that to compete against Spain, Turkey will have to "be more balanced than in the first match" because they are capable of "playing good attacking football", but he is "aware of the level of the opposition", against whom his players will have to "show a lot of mental strength".

The Turkish coach described Real Madrid's Arda Guler as "talented", who yearns for "great goals not only in the national team, but also at his own club". "He is a player who is improving a lot and who can still improve. His ambition shows that he can be the best player in Turkey's history," he said.

06 Jul2023	Fenerbahçe	Real Madrid	Transfer
13 Jul2021	Fenerbahçe U19	Fenerbahçe	Transfer
13 Jan2021	Fenerbahçe U16	Fenerbahçe U19	Free transfer

Arda Güler

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