Türkiye were paired with Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal, the Czech Republic and the winner of playoff winner C in Group F as the draw for the UEFA Euro 2024 finals were held in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday.
The Crescent-Stars come into tournament as surprise winners of their qualifying group ahead of Croatia and would like to reverse their misfortune in the past two Euros when arriving with fashionable predictions of success.
Portugal and Ronaldo can be feeling deja vu here. They faced Türkiye and the Czechs in the group stages of Euro 2008, with co-host Switzerland.
Portugal topped the standings that time and will be fancied to do so again after sweeping through qualifying with a perfect 10 wins and 10 goals from its 38-year-old superstar.
UEFA gifts a tournament entry in the playoffs to the third-tier of member nations and this group is where that team will land: Greece was the Euro 2004 champion and the others, which may be Georgia, Kazakhstan, or Luxembourg, would be tournament novices.
In his reaction on the draw, Türkiye national team coach Vincenzo Montella said they did not have any preference. "What we will do at this stage is study our opponents in detail."
Regarding the similarity to the EURO 2008 draw, Montella said, "When Portugal and the Czech Republic appear in the draw, it may remind us of EURO 2008. However, expectations and many things may be very different this time around."
"Türkiye entered the EURO 2008 draw from the fourth pot and we all saw what happened in the tournament. So there may be unknown, unexpected and unforeseen things here." Montella said.
He added that every match in such big events will be crucial. "In my 30-year football and coaching career experience, every match is difficult in such tournaments and the power differences between the teams are quite small," he said.
Responding to whether Türkiye can get its first win over Portugal, Montella laughed and said in Turkish: "Inşallah (go willing)."
Türkiye will open it's European campaign on June 18 against the playoff winner C.
Italy meets Spain
Elsewhere, Reigning champions Italy were placed in the same group as Spain, while France will come up against the Netherlands and England avoided any of the toughest opponents.
Gareth Southgate's much-fancied England side will meet Slovenia, Denmark and Serbia, with hosts Germany taking on Scotland in the tournament's opening game on June 14 in Munich.
Italy, who beat England on penalties at Wembley in the final of the last European Championship in 2021, and Spain will also face Croatia and Albania in Group B.
Spain, victors over Italy in the final of Euro 2012, will take on 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia in their opening match in Berlin on June 15.
Italy were always likely to face a difficult draw after being placed in the bottom pot based on their results in qualifying, when they scraped through with a 0-0 stalemate against Ukraine in their final match.
"When you're in the fourth pot you know that you have a lot of teams ahead of you, but you can't forget that you represent Italy and you have to play every match with pride," coach Luciano Spalletti told broadcaster RAI.
The meeting of France, the 2022 World Cup runners-up, and the Netherlands will be the other heavyweight tie of the opening phase.
They were in the same section in qualifying, with France winning both encounters. The two nations are in Group D along with Austria and a play-off winner, which will be one of Poland, Wales, Finland or Estonia.
'Ready for expectation'
England, in contrast, will have few complaints about their opponents in Group C, although a Denmark side ranked 19th in the world were arguably the team to avoid from the second pot of seeds.
Southgate's team, considered the favorites along with France for the tournament, will take on Serbia in their opening game in Gelsenkirchen on June 16.
"I've stood here after quite a few draws and you always feel the same way, you can look at it on paper but the games aren't played on paper," Southgate told the BBC.
"One or two teams that you are obviously glad to avoid, especially in pot three, pot four, but all the teams we play are more than capable."
He added: "We've developed a lot as a team over the past few years, we're used to these big games, we're ready for the expectation and we hope we can give our supporters some more brilliant nights as I think we have in the last few tournaments."
If England top their group, and France also finish first in their section, the two sides would find themselves on the same side of the draw in the knockout phase and would be on course to meet in the semifinals.
Scotland, who famously lost to Brazil in the opening match of the 1998 World Cup, will again have the honor of featuring in the tournament's curtain-raiser when they meet Germany to start in Group A.
Hungary and Switzerland complete that section, which could be one of the most evenly-matched.
"It'll be nice to open the tournament, be involved in that first game, and hopefully we can set the tournament off with a good match," Scotland manager Steve Clarke told the BBC.
Germany face Scotland in opener
"It will be a very nice start against Scotland in Munich. The other games will also be exciting duels. It's not a group of death, but a very good one," said Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann.
Belgium are in Group E alongside Slovakia, Romania and the winner of the other play-off path, which will be Israel, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Ukraine.
The monthlong Euro, played in 10 cities across Germany, will conclude with the final in Berlin on July 14.
The top two teams in each group will qualify for the last 16, along with the four best third-placed sides.
Earlier on Saturday, European football's governing body UEFA announced that the total prize pot for competing nations will be 331 million euros ($360m).
Each team gets 9.25 million euros as a starting amount and will earn up to a maximum of 28.25 million euros for the winner, if they win all their group games.