We here at JOE have three pairs of premium level tickets to give away for the Ireland v Turkey international in the Aviva Stadium on Sunday May 25th.
The World Cup is almost upon us, but Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane (pic below)will already be looking at the upcoming European Championship qualifiers in September. They will be using this friendly against Turkey to see who is cutting the mustard at international level for Ireland. Assessing the squad is of paramount importance and a match against a strong looking Turkish team will be a good test of seeing where we’re at ahead of September.
Turkey had a disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign and could only manage 4th place in a group won by runaway leaders Holland. They finished behind Romania and Hungary too. There is no doubting the quality of the squad though with players from the big Turkish clubs peppered throughout. Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Besiktas are all heavily represented.
Unfortunately they will be without their star player Arda Turan who is playing in the Champions League Final the day before for Atletico Madrid, but there’ll be plenty of interest in seeing how former Liverpool midfielder Nuri Sahin (pic above) is doing since returning to Borussia Dortmund. Led by the enigmatic Fatih Terim, who had spells managing Fiorentina and AC Milan in the past, they will present Ireland with a strong test.
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