Turkey vs Paraguay arrives with Vincenzo Montella’s squad already under pressure after an opening defeat to Australia in Mundial 2026. The second match now asks the same group to reset fast, with Turkey carrying 26 players and a roster built around 16 from the domestic league.
Montella’s 26-man Turkey
Montella’s list splits cleanly into a domestic core and a smaller European group. Six players come from Galatasaray, six from Fenerbahce, and the rest are spread across clubs in different leagues, giving Turkey a roster that looks balanced on paper but must respond after the first loss.
Among the domestic names, Ugurcan Cakur and Abdulkerim Bardakci stand out for Galatasaray, while Kerem Akturkoglu and Ismail Yuksek are the notable Fenerbahce figures. Orkan Kokcu is at Besiktas, Samet Akaydın at Caykur Rizespor, and İrfan Can Kahveci is at Kasimpasa on loan from Fenerbahce.
Arda Guler leads the Europe group
Arda Guler remains the focal point of the Europe-based side of the squad. He is 21, has 112 matches for Real Madrid, joined there in 2023 from Fenerbahce, and scored six goals in 51 matches last season. He debuted for Turkey at 17 in late 2022, scored his first goal for the national team in 2023, and added one goal and two assists in four starts at Eurocopa de 2024.
That leaves eight representatives outside the domestic league, and they are not spread randomly. Deniz Gul is at Porto in Portugal, Merih Demiral at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, Ferdi Kadıoğlu at Brighton in the Premier League, Altay Bayındır at Manchester United in the Premier League, Hakan Calhanoglu at Inter in Serie A, Kenan Yildiz at Juventus in Serie A, Zeki Celik at Roma in Serie A, Ozan Kabak at Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, Can Uzun at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, and Salih Ozcan at Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
Australia opened the wound
The complication is simple: a squad built around domestic familiarity and top-league experience still opened Mundial 2026 with a defeat to Australia. That result makes the Paraguay match more than another date on the schedule, because Turkey now has to show that the mix Montella selected can travel from paper to the pitch after the first setback.
Turkey’s 2002 third-place finish is the last marker of its highest level in the competition, and this roster is being asked to move closer to that standard with a group that is heavy on Superlig turca players but still dependent on the European names to raise the ceiling. If the domestic spine holds and Guler drives the attack, Turkey vs Paraguay becomes the first real test of whether the squad balance Montella chose can turn a bad opener into momentum.
