Furious Real Madrid star Arda Guler reacts to Turkey being knocked out of World Cup

Turkey's World Cup campaign came to a premature end after a 1-0 defeat to Paraguay mathematically ended their hopes of reaching the knockout stages. Vincenzo Montella's side arrived at the tournament carrying significant expectations after their impressive run to the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.

Instead, the Crescent-Stars endured a disastrous start. A shock 2-0 defeat to Australia was followed by the narrow loss to Paraguay, leaving Turkey without a point and without a goal from their opening two matches.

Guler was visibly upset after the final whistle. The 21-year-old, regarded as one of the leading figures of Turkey's emerging generation alongside Kenan Yildiz, struggled to hide his frustration as elimination became a reality. Speaking to TRT Spor after the defeat, Guler delivered a blunt assessment of Turkey's performance and apologised to supporters.

"We are ashamed. We apologise to all our people," Guler said. "We play in very big teams and we need to show this on the field. We couldn’t score in two matches. Throughout my national team career, I will do everything I can to make them forget this tournament. We apologise to our people."

The statistics behind Turkey’s exit paint a grim picture of their performance in front of goal. Over the course of their two defeats, they registered a staggering 62 shots without scoring a single goal. According to Opta, this represents the highest number of attempts without finding the net across any two-match span in World Cup history dating back to 1966. In the match against Paraguay alone, Turkey had 78.5 percent possession and 33 shots on goal, but none of them were converted into goals.

Turkey still have one group-stage match remaining against the United States, but the result will have no impact on their fate. The focus will instead be on ending the tournament with a stronger performance and restoring some pride.