In 2020, the UEFA European Championships celebrated its 60th birthday. The finals tournament was thus spread across the continent, and despite it being delayed due to COVID, the competition was as popular as ever.
That event was played in half-filled stadiums due to restrictions, but Euro 2024 and beyond is back to normality, and interest in the tournament has never been greater.
The tournament started life as a four-team finals event but is now up to 24 participants. This growth has been coupled with an increased interest from fans keen to see their chosen national teams in action.
Trying to buy tickets for important qualifiers, and especially the finals themselves, is a very difficult process. The main point of focus for these is the UEFA ticketing portal, but if you haven’t tried this route, we strongly suggest you give it a wide berth.
The sheer number of applications, as well as the way it’s managed, makes it next to impossible to succeed in your ticketing endeavours. For instance, the first tranche of tickets released by European football’s governing body occurs before the draw is made and before any national team has officially qualified.
This means that millions of fans apply for games based only on the knowledge of what city and stadium, as well as the date the game takes place. Nonetheless, supporters keenly battle it out for these tickets via a lottery, which goes some way to showing just how popular the event itself is.
At SeatPick, you can avoid this whole debacle. Our ticketing platform aggregates sales from hundreds of trusted ticket resellers so that users can more easily check what’s on the market and can then compare prices before buying tickets that suit their budget.
We are one of the most popular sites in this regard, and hundreds of thousands of football fans make great use of our service, not least because we don’t include any hidden fees, and every purchase comes with a guarantee.
France vs Turkey UEFA Euros Tournament Record
The first UEFA European Championship finals were hosted by France in 1960, a tournament that Les Bleus qualified for on merit. The French were, however, surprisingly beaten by Yugoslavia in a real seesaw encounter in Paris in the Semi-Finals.
France were 4-2 up with just 15 minutes to play but then managed to stumble out 5-4 after an incredible comeback from the visitors.
They then failed to qualify for any of the next five tournaments before once again hosting in 1984, a competition they did not need to qualify for. Nonetheless, Michel Hidalgo’s side showed just what they were capable of, storming to a title with outstanding style.
Michel Platini led the way, the French skipper finishing the tournament as top-scorer with nine goals in five games, as they saw off Portugal in the Semi-Finals and then Spain in the final.
Euro 1996 was the next finals that they impressed in, surprisingly losing to the Czech Republic on penalties at Old Trafford in the Semi-Finals.
Four years later, they made amends for that failure by picking up their second title, beating Italy in Amsterdam 2-1, David Trezeguet smashing in the winner in extra time. In 2004, Greece knocked them out in the Quarter-Finals on their way to a surprise success in Portugal.
In 2008, France couldn’t get out of their group, and 2012 saw another Quarter-Final loss, this time to Spain, who would go on to beat Italy in the final.
Euro 2016 saw France host the tournament again, and Didier Deschamps looked set to take his side to a third title as they took on Portugal in the final, only to see their visitors lose their star player, Cristiano Ronaldo, to injury early on.
France were, however, unable to break down their opponents, and Eder hit a marvelous winner to break French hearts in Paris. At Euro 2020, they limped out in the Round of 16, losing to Switzerland on penalties in Bucharest.
Turkey’s first taste of UEFA European Championship finals action came in 1996, though their tally of three losses from three games and zero goals probably left their fans wondering why they bothered.
Four years later, they did much better and got to the Quarter-Final stage before losing to Portugal.
2008 saw the Turks get all the way to the Semi-Finals, where they came close to upsetting the odds, only to lose to Germany in a five-goal thriller, with Philipp Lahm scoring a last-gasp winner in Basel.
At both Euro 2016 and 2020, Turkey failed to get out of their group.
France vs Turkey Head-to-Head
France and Turkey have met in just one UEFA European Championship campaign, and that came in the qualifying for the Euro 2020 finals.
In their first clash, goals from Kaan Ayhan and Cengiz Under gave Turkey a 2-0 win in Konya, while another goal from Ayhan earned them a great 1-1 draw in Paris. Both teams successfully secured passage to the finals.
