Turkey has a monutain to climb

In just over 12 months in charge, Waseige seem to have brought stability to the National side after taking over from George Leekens last summer.

The 61-year-old authoritarian coach has transformed the team into a formidable unit which on its day is capable of beating anybody.

In recent friendlies they drew 5-5 with Holland in a topsy-turvy match in the Belgian capital, beaten Italy 3-1 away from home, and narrowly lost 2-1 to England.

“I need a well-balanced team that can collectively do the job I want it to do," said Waseige, whose team lacks any well-known stars.”

Turkey, meanwhile, need to win to have any chance of staying in the tournament and in Belgium of all countries they have a mountain to climb.

The Turkish press are already sharpening their knives after the team’s 0-0 draw with Sweden last Monday was met with a blistering attack by the mass-circulation daily Milliyet.

“We cannot play football and we cannot win matches. Now we need what would be a miraculous win over Belgium,” it said in its post-mortem.

The draw left Turkey languishing at the bottom of thegroup with just one point from two matches

“We played really bad, even worse than against Italy,” the paper went on to say. Italy defeated Turkey 2-1 last Sunday in the opening Group B match.

Turkey’s poor performance was due to “inadequate preparations" and coach Mustafa Denizli’s inability to get the team working as a unit, the liberal daily Radikal wrote.

Turkey lost all three group matches at Euro 96, its first appearance in the Euro finals but expectations for Euro 2000 have been high with the victory of Galatasaray in the UEFA Cup last month.

Belgian midfielders Nico van Kerckhoven and Gert Verheyen together with defender Philippe Leonard have all shrugged off minor injuries and coach Waseige can pick from a fully fit squad.

Umit Davala is the only concern for the Turks with a foot injury while Leicester midfielder has overcome a troublesome ankle and is available for selection.