For the first time in its history, Turkey will play in the elite division of the League of Nations, after earning promotion at the expense of Hungary. In a clash of the promotion/relegation playoffs, Vincenzo Montella's team defeated the “Hungarians” for the second time, after winning the second leg in Budapest with 3:0. A few days ago, the Turks defeated the opponent with 3:1 at home, which brought them a convincing 6:1 victory on aggregate.
This is how they enter the “A” league of the Nations League, while the losing team is relegated to League “B”.
The Hungarians were hoping for a turnaround in front of their fans and even at 0:0 they hit the post through Dominik Szoboszláj, but similar to the first match they were sent into a knockdown with two quick goals. In the 37th minute, Hakan Çalhanoğlu converted from a penalty, and two minutes later, Real Madrid's young hope Arda Güler scored a second goal.
This was decided by the final outcome here, which is why the hosts were never able to do anything meaningful. In the last seconds, the Turks even scored a third goal through Galatasaray defender Abdulkerim Bardakçı.
Turkey will also be Bulgaria's rival in the World Cup qualifiers next year. The first leg between the two teams will be in Sofia on October 11, with the return leg on November 15.
In another match, Greece advanced to League "A" of the Nations League at the expense of Scotland. Our southern neighbors won 3-0 in Glasgow in the second leg of the play-offs and achieved a 3-1 aggregate success, after losing in Athens a few days ago. This is the second significant victory for the Greeks in Britain in as many months, after they beat England at "Wembley" last October.
Greece tied the aggregate score with a goal by Yannis Kostantelias, which silenced the stands in the 20th minute. The visitors had the advantage and Konstantinos Karetsas doubled their lead shortly before the break. The 17-year-old talent played his first match as a starter for the national team and became the country's youngest goalscorer in history.
"The Pipers" were booed at half-time, and their problems increased 15 seconds into the second half. Then Christos Tsolis scored a third goal for the Greeks. The Scottish players were shocked and never managed to react. Steve Clarke tried to change something with substitutions, but they didn't help.