Mexico and Turkey will meet on the international stage for the first time on Tuesday at Kenan Memorial Stadium in North Carolina.

El Tri were beaten 4-2 in a friendly versus Switzerland over the weekend, while the Turks came from behind to defeat the USA by a 2-1 score.

Match preview

Over two months since winning their first CONCACAF Nations League trophy, Mexico looked anything like that team on Saturday.

Javier Aguirre’s men lost for the first time since November 2024 and are in danger of suffering consecutive defeats on Tuesday for the first time since June of last year.

They conceded more goals on Saturday than they had in their previous five encounters combined across all competitions (three).

Tuesday will be their final warm-up match before they begin their title defence at the CONCACAF Gold Cup with their opening match of that tournament occurring on Saturday against the Dominican Republic.

The last nine times that they have netted the opening goal, the Mexicans have gone on to win, though they have also lost seven successive affairs when conceding first.

Mexico are winless in their last four matches played versus UEFA opposition, with their previous triumph against a European side being in an October 2020 friendly against the Netherlands (1-0).

Although they suffered an early blow, going behind in the opening minute, Turkey recovered quickly against the Americans, going in front for good before the match reached the half-hour mark.

Resilience has been a strong suit for this team of late, winning two of their previous three matches in which they had conceded the opening goal.

Vincenzo Montella’s men have won their last three international affairs, outscoring their opponents by a combined margin of 8-2 over that span.

On Tuesday, they can extend their winning run to four matches, which would be their longest since June 2022, when they won their first four group contests in the UEFA Nations League.

The Turks have won their previous 10 matches in which they netted multiple times, a streak that dates all the way back to the fall of 2023.

The Crescent Stars have only played two games against North American opponents in the last 11 years, losing 2-1 to the US in June 2014 and beating them by that same score last weekend.

Mexico International Friendlies form:

Mexico form (all competitions):

Turkey International Friendlies form:

Turkey form (all competitions):

Team News

Aguirre gave two Mexicans their first appearances with the national team this past weekend, with Mateo Chavez playing the full 90 minutes at left-back and Ramon Juarez coming on as a second-half substitute.

That leaves Jeremy Marquez, Gilberto Rafael Mora Zambrano and Juanjo Purata as the only players selected for this window without a senior cap.

Santiago Gimenez scored his fifth goal with El Tri on Saturday, with the other strike for them coming courtesy of Angel Sepulveda, the third internationally for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup winner.

In their victory over the United States, Berke Ozer and Mustafa Eskihellac collected their first senior caps for the Turkish national team.

Midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu is three appearances away from from reaching the century mark and Okay Yokuslu is three shy of the 50-cap mark.

Arda Guler and Kerem Arturkoglu scored just over two minutes apart this past weekend to change that match completely, the fifth and 12th goals, respectively, for the two internationally.

Mexico possible starting lineup:

Malagon; Araujo, Montes, Lara, Chavez; Mora, Ed. Alvarez, Pineda, Vega; Gimenez, Jimenez

Turkey possible starting lineup:

Ozer; Celik, Demiral, Akaydin, Ozcan; Yuksek, Ayhan; Aydin, Guler, Uzun; Akturkoglu

We say: Mexico 1-1 Turkey

The Mexicans have shown plenty of resilience after a poor performance in Aguirre’s third stint as manager, and we expect a spirited affair between two teams that boast plenty of continuity and quality at every position.  

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Joel Lefevre

Previews by email