WHEN Wales take on Turkey on June 16 in Baku the home crowd will not be cheering for Gareth Bale and Co.
That’s because Azerbaijan and Turkey have a historically strong relationship.
The two countries are linked by similar culture, history and ethnicity due to both being Turkic nations, and even engaged in joint military exercises in April.
The relationship is so strong that the motto ‘one nation, two states’ is taught in schools across Azerbaijan.
And as Azerbaijan have failed to qualify for this year’s Euros there’s no prizes for guessing who they’ll be cheering for on matchday two when Wales come to town.
They will be hoping Turkey can pull of a campaign similar to that of 2008 where they progressed all the way to the semi-finals before crashing out 3-2 against Germany thanks to a 90th minute Philipp Lahm winner.
The Baku Olympic Stadium will be filled to 25 per cent capacity and also hosts Switzerland vs Turkey on matchday three on June 20, where the home crowd can once again get behind their close friends.
Turkey and Wales line up in Group A alongside Italy and Switzerland, in what is a high quality group.
The top two teams from Group A automatically qualify for the last-sixteen of Euro 2020, as well as the four best third-place teams from the six overall groups.
Euro 2020 gets underway on June 11 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome as Turkey themselves take on Italy in the tournament opener.
