Turkey takes on Iceland in vital World Cup qualifier

By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun

ANKARA

Turkey's national football team will take on Iceland in a World Cup European Qualifier Group I match on Friday at 9.45 p.m. local time (1845GMT)

The match in Yeni Eskisehir Stadium will be crucial for both sides, as Iceland currently sits in second place in Group I with 16 points in eight matches, while Turkey is third with 14 points.

Turkey's Romanian manager Mircea Lucescu will not be able to watch the match from the sidelines, as he is under a one-match ban from FIFA after protesting referees’ calls during a match with Ukraine.

Winning the match is the only option for Turkey, as the team wants to take their chances to qualify for the 2018 World Cup to the last game against Finland.

The group’s other matches will be between Croatia and Finland and Kosovo and Ukraine.

Here is Turkey's draft squad ahead of the matches:

Harun Tekin (Bursaspor), Serkan Kirintili (Atiker Konyaspor), Volkan Babacan, Emre Belozoglu, Mevlut Erdinc (Medipol Basaksehir), Kaan Ayhan (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Sabri Sarıoglu (Goztepe), Mehmet Topal, Ismail Koybasi, Ozan Tufan (Fenerbahce), Omer Toprak, Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund), Caglar Soyuncu (Freiburg), Serdar Aziz, Selcuk Inan, Tolga Cigerci (Galatasaray), Caner Erkin, Oguzhan Ozyakup, Cenk Tosun (Besiktas), Cengiz Under (Roma), Emre Mor (Celta Vigo), Okay Yokuslu, Yusuf Yazici, Volkan Sen, Burak Yilmaz (Trabzonspor), Hakan Calhanoglu (Milan), Yunus Malli (Wolfsburg), Arda Turan (Barcelona), Enes Unal (Villarreal).

Here are the standings in Group I prior to Friday’s matches: