Mehmet’s on Top of the Irish
MEHMET TOPAL’S sweetlystruck volley condemned Martin O’Neill’s new-look side to defeat.
O’Neill handed senior debuts to Declan Rice, Scott Hogan and substitute Matt Doherty and first starts to Alan Browne and Sean Maguire in Antalya.
But Fenerbahce midfielder Topal who won the day with a 52nd-minute strike. With the Republic trialling a 3-5-2 system, they were largely overrun in central midfield to leave Hogan, Maguire and later Shane Long starved of possession.
But there were positives with Rice assured on the left side of the defensive trio and later in midfield, and skipper Seamus Coleman getting 62 minutes under his belt a day short of a year since he suffered a double leg fracture.
The Irish squad will reassemble in May for friendlies against France and the United States, and it remains to be seen which of O’Neill’s understudies have done enough to warrant another call-up.
Coleman and James McClean were asked to operate as wing-backs, but found themselves defending rather than attacking in the early stages as full-backs Hasan Ali Kaldirim and Gokhan Gonul pinned them inside their own half and Hakan Calhanoglu and Yusuf Yazici dictated the tempo behind lone striker Cenk Tosun.
But the Turks needed just seven minutes of the second half to force their way in front when Calhanoglu and Yazici worked a short corner and the latter crossed for Topal to volley home from close range.