Spain coach Vicente del Bosque says he is looking forward to renewing his acquaintance with Turkish football in Friday evening's Group D clash, while Turkey captain Arda Turan has admitted that both he and his teammates will have to up their performances to remain in the tournament.
Del Bosque was appointed manager of Besiktas in summer 2004, but was sacked the following January with the Istanbul-based team already out of the UEFA Cup and Turkish Cup, and fifth in the Super Lig table a full fourteen points off the top.
The former Real Madrid coach has lead Spain to victory at World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 and, despite an embarrassing group stage exit at World Cup 2014, they are now one of the favourites at Euro 2016 and they secured a 1-0 win over Czech Republic in their opening game.
Ahead of his first meeting with Turkey as La Roja coach, Del Bosque told a news conference that he expected Fatih Terim's side to play better than they had when losing 1-0 to Croatia in their first Euro 2016 game.
"I have a lot of affection for Besiktas, who were champion this year, and for Turkish football," he said. "I expect brave players, without worries, who will make the game difficult for us. We always have to be on our guard. I hope we can take the initiative and play in their half, but Turkey is a great national team, we must not make the mistake of [just] looking at their last game."
Turkey were flattered by the scoreline in that loss to Croatia, and afterwards Terim criticised his senior players including Barcelona playmaker Turan, who he had substituted midway through the second half.
Speaking to UEFA's official website, the playmaker accepted he had been ineffective but suggested some of the criticism he has received had been unfair.
"Personally, I played badly and was ineffective," Turan said. "However, these things happen in life. I'll try my best to do better in the next match. But I really find it hard to understand the way people react at times -- I've worn the shirt over 90 times, I have played badly a few times but you could count them on the fingers of one hand. I'm just trying to stand tall for my country and my national team."
Turkey had generally been outplayed by a better team in the Croats, Turan said, but if they fought harder against Spain they could get a point which would keep alive hopes of qualification for the round of 16.
"We were very disciplined tactically but Croatia are a better team than us and they're more experienced," he said. "To match them, we had to run more but we couldn't. However, this is a tournament and these things happen. The important thing is to get back on our feet and carry on. I hope we can play much more effectively against Spain. I believe in my teammates -- to qualify they accomplished great things and put in a lot of effort. I am proud of them. Spain are favourites -- they will have more of the ball.
"We're going to try our hardest to get a point, and if we can do that, our chances of going through will be very high. Spain are a very strong team but they still only play with 11 men like us. We're going to fight until the end."