Opening matches sound the alarm: Turkey has started 8 of the last 9 tournaments with a defeat

The A National Football Team, which began the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a loss to Australia, has been unable to change the negative trend in its opening matches. The Crescent-Stars have drawn attention with a statistic showing they have left the pitch defeated in their first match in 8 of the last 9 major tournaments they have participated in.

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Opening matches sound the alarm: Turkey has started 8 of the last 9 tournaments with a defeat

The excitement of the 2026 FIFA World Cup has begun, but for Turkey, a familiar trend from previous years remains unchanged. Facing Australia in their first match in Group D, the national team left the pitch with a 2-0 defeat. With this result, the Turkish National Team has continued its tradition of making a poor start in the opening matches of major tournaments.

The Crescent-Stars have managed to win their first match in only one of the 9 major tournaments they have participated in to date. In the other eight tournaments, they were unable to secure a victory and left the pitch defeated in the majority of these matches.

The 4-1 defeat against Germany in the 1954 World Cup went down in history as one of the difficult starts to Turkey's opening match tests in major tournaments. The national team lost 1-0 to Croatia in the European Football Championship in 1996 (EURO 1996), 2-1 to Italy in 2000, and 2-1 to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup.

Starting the 2008 European Championship with a 2-0 loss to Portugal, the 2016 tournament with a 1-0 loss again to Croatia, and the 2020 tournament with a 3-0 loss to Italy, Turkey was only able to break its bad luck to some extent by securing a 3-1 victory against Georgia in the EURO 2024 opener.

In the 2026 World Cup, the 2-0 result against Australia showed once again that the problem of starting tournaments poorly has not yet been overcome.

The national team's performance in the first matches of major tournaments is as follows: