Turkey's Arda Guler becomes youngest player to score on his Euro debut

The record was previously held by Cristiano Ronaldo

In the opening Group F encounter of the tournament, Arda Guler became the youngest player to score on his Euro debut as Turkey defeated tournament newcomer Georgia 3-1 at the BVB Stadion Dortmund on Tuesday to kick off its Euro 2024 campaign.

With an incredible volley from the outside of the penalty area in the 25th minute, Mert Müldür gave Turkey the lead. After two minutes, Turkey believed it had doubled their advantage thanks to a goal by Kenan Yildiz, but VAR determined that Yildiz was offside, hence the goal was disallowed.

Georges Mikautadze, who scored his country’s first-ever goal at a European Championship, gave Georgia an equaliser. Arda Guler wrote history in the second half by giving Turkey the lead and scoring the game-winning goal.

Georgia, making their debut, was left speechless when Guler won the ball along the right side of the middle, turned to his left, and struck a left-footed curler that kissed the net.

With the goal, he broke the record established by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2004 at 19 years and 128 days, becoming the youngest player ever to score on his first appearance at a European Championship finals (19 years and 114 days).

In the last seconds of the contest, the Georgian goalie abandoned his goal to advance for a corner, and Kerem Akturkoglu scored the game’s winning goal into an empty net.

Prior to the opening match of the nations’ European Championship on Tuesday, a significant brawl broke out between supporters of Georgia and Turkey inside Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion.

More than an hour before the Group F match was scheduled to begin, violence broke out. Before police intervened to bring back order, supporters threw items, traded punches, and displayed weapons on one part of the ground.

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