The Turkish national team will host Belgium in their fifth UEFA Nations League A Group 1 match on Thursday, 12 November 2026. The match kicks off at 20:00 local time at the Gürsel Aksel Stadium in İzmir and will be broadcast live on ATV. This is the team's next official fixture amid a difficult run of four consecutive defeats.

This is a key fixture for Türkiye's hopes of avoiding relegation from the top tier. Having lost the reverse fixture 3-0 in Belgium, the team needs a positive result at home. Türkiye's form has been poor, with four consecutive defeats in the competition. The most recent was a 3-1 loss away to Italy on 5 October. In that match, Aral Simsir scored Türkiye's lone goal. This defeat was the fourth in a run of four losses, with the team's recent form reading zero wins and zero draws from the last four matches.

THE GROUP STANDING

Currently third in the group with 6 points, Türkiye must finish at least third to have a chance of staying in League A. To guarantee third place, they need to win both of their remaining matches and hope Belgium loses to Italy. If points are level with Belgium at 6, the head-to-head record will decide, which currently favours Belgium heavily.

Finishing third does not guarantee safety, however. They would then be ranked against the other third-placed teams across all League A groups. Finishing in the top two among those would mean staying up. Finishing in the bottom two would trigger a relegation play-off. Finishing fourth could mean either an A/B League play-off or direct relegation to League B, depending on their ranking among all fourth-placed teams.

RECENT ENCOUNTERS

In the group stage so far, Türkiye lost 3-0 to Belgium, beat France 1-0, and beat Italy 4-1 and 3-1 before losing the last two matches against the Italians. In the 3-1 loss to Italy, Aral Simsir scored Türkiye's lone goal. In the 3-0 defeat to Belgium, Kevin De Bruyne scored a brace. This poor run of results also includes a 4-1 loss to Italy on 28 September and a 1-0 loss to France on 25 September.

Following the Belgium match, Türkiye travel to face France on 15 November at 22:45. Head coach Vincenzo Montella is expected to consider changes to his squad after the recent run of defeats. The team's immediate focus is securing three vital points in front of their home fans in İzmir on 12 November. This is the team's next official fixture, against Belgium on 12 November.

This story first appeared at Habertürk