Hakan Balta has no Portugal fear

Attacking threats
While Turkey sat out UEFA EURO 2004™ and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Portugal reached the final and the last four respectively, and since then Ronaldo has blossomed into arguably the most exciting attacking player in the world, top scoring in Manchester United FC's UEFA Champions League and English Premier League triumphs. But Turkey are not just focusing on Ronaldo, and are well aware Portugal have other attacking threats. "I think that Ronaldo may not play on my wing but nevertheless, Deco or [Ricardo] Quaresma may well do," Hakan Balta said. "I am not afraid of them, we have quality players, too."

Greece example
Portugal may be favourites for Saturday's match with many but they were on home soil four years ago against Greece and ended up losing, just as they did in the final to the same unfancied opponents. Hakan Balta said: "Every team can beat each other. In the last tournament, Greece did it. If we defend as a team we can get a good result against Portugal. The other games are also not easy, Switzerland are the hosts and the Czech Republic have a quality squad. We respect our opponents but are not afraid of them."

Dream year
A good run for Turkey would cap a dream year for the Berlin-born 25-year-old, who joined Galatasaray AS from Vestel Manisaspor last summer and ended up clinching his club the league title with a spectacular goal against Gençlerbirliği Oftaşspor. Having been capped once in 2006, he broke back into the Turkey squad late in qualifying and now he is in Switzerland. "A year ago, I was playing for Vestel Manisaspor and not guessing that I would play for the national team," Hakan Balta said. "Then everything went very well for me, we became league champions and now I am in the national team ahead of the [UEFA] European Championship. I feel very, very happy."