Turkey have the pedigree to make hosts look second-rate

Sven Goran Eriksson's faltering young Turks face the real deal in Sunderland tonight. With the visitors travelling more in expectation than hope, England will face their toughest test since last year's World Cup quarter-final against Brazil.

According to almost any objective criteria, Turkey are a better team than their hosts, despite never having won, or even scored, against England in eight previous meetings. They finished the World Cup in third place while England limply fell in the last eight. They made the quarter-finals of Euro 2000 after England had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the group stage. Turkey are ranked seventh in the world, England two places lower. The most recent form line, through games against Slovakia, Macedonia and Liechtenstein, tells its own story.

England struggled, stumbled and laboured to two wins and a draw. Turkey won 3-0 against Slovakia, 2-1 away in Macedonia and 5-0 against Liechtenstein. They are unbeaten by anyone except Brazil in a 13-match run that stretches back to the start of the World Cup.

Player for player, Turkey also punch their weight, something their striker Nihat Kahveci was keen to emphasise this week. "England have world-class players like Owen, Beckham and Scholes but Turkey has its own stars, too," said the 23-year-old who has been in prolific form for Real Sociedad this season. "We've got Rustu [Recber], Emre [Belozoglu], Yildiray [Basturk] and a choice of great strikers.

"People talk about England as a great team but I'm only young," Nihat added. "I know that the Premier League is very good but this is different from the national team, which doesn't seem to fly high very often. I think we can compete and win this match." He also said that Turkey, who are two points ahead of England in Group Seven, could benefit from the stress the hosts are likely to be under.

"England must feel that they have to win this match," he said. "That puts a lot pressure on them and maybe they will panic." Nihat is expected to start tonight's game as one of two strikers, the other probably being Besiktas's Ilhan Mansiz, the 27-year-old pin-up of Turkish football. That would leave two high-calibre forwards ­ Hakan Sukur and Hasan Sas ­ on the bench.

It is thought the latter, who shone at the World Cup but has been out of form at Galatasaray, is least likely to play. Hakan Sukur, Turkey's all-time top scorer, has a better chance. Although he has been injured since moving to Blackburn last year and lacks match fitness, he excelled in a closed-doors practice session on Sunday evening, scoring a hat-trick. That Ilhan also got three in the same session and that Nihat's form makes him likely to start shows the strength of the forward line.

It is a strength, bolstered by experience, replicated across the team. Rustu Recber has been Turkey's first-choice keeper for 10 years, since he was 19, and is good enough to have been linked a move to Arsenal. Central defence will probably see Aston Villa's Alpay Ozalan, 32, partnered with another veteran, Bulent Korkmaz, 29, the captain of Galatasaray. Bulent's club-mate Ergun Penbe could be drafted in to replace the injured Hakan Unsal at left-back. At right-back, even the relatively youthful Fatih Akyel, 25, has six years' international experience.

Turkey's international progress is exemplified in their creative midfield personnel. Were they motor cars, they would be stamped with the slogan "Made in Germany. Polished in Europe". The trend for the Turkish FA to recruit from the Turkish population in Germany, where an increasing number of the squad were born or raised, in only likely to increase.

Ditto the amount of encouragement the players receive to broaden their horizons by playing in different countries. Senol Gunes, Turkey's coach, acknowledges as much. "Certainly the German-born players are important for us because they have great tactical awareness," he said. "We have talented players in Turkey but they have not always been given the best training in their early development."

The most familiar visiting midfielder tonight ­ aside from Blackburn's Tugay Kerimoglu ­ will be Bayer Leverkusen's Yildiray Basturk, who tormented Liverpool and Manchester United in last season's Champions' League. Alongside them should be two players from Internazionale, Okan Buruk and Emre Belozoglu, both heralded at times at the most naturally talented Turks of their generation. Emre is known as the "Maradona of the Bosphorus".

"We're going to beat England for the first time in our history," Haluk Ulusoy, the president of Turkey's FA, said. Reason says that could be true.