World Cup: Metcalfe starts for Australia against Turkey | OneFootball

St. Pauli’s Connor Metcalfe is in the starting lineup for Australia’s opening World Cup game against Turkey. The midfielder and his club captain Jackson Irvine, who is on the bench for today's game, had a difficult campaign as the Hamburg side relegated to 2. Bundesliga after a couple of seasons in Bundesliga.

Turkey have Hoffenheim’s center-back Ozan Kabak and Eintracht Frankfurt’s youngster Can Uzun in their squad, but they will both start the game on the bench. In addition, Australia’s Nestory Irankunda (FC Bayern) and Turkey’s captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu (HSV and Leverkusen) are the players with previous Bundesliga experiences from the starting lineups.

Australia’s Ajdin Hrustic (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Mathew Leckie (Gladbach, Ingolstadt and Hertha) as well as Turkey’s Salih Özcan (Köln, Dortmund), Çağlar Söyüncü (Freiburg) and Kaan Ayhan (Schalke and Fortuna Düsseldorf) are players on the bench from both sides with Bundesliga past.

Former Bayern youth player Kenan Yıldız is also named as a substitute as he's working on a return to full fitness, while Vincenzo Montella didn’t call up Stuttgart’s captain Atakan Karazor for the tournament.

Confirmed Australia vs. Turkey Lineups

Australia: Beach; Circati, Souttar ©, Burgess; Italiano, Okon, O'Neill, Bos; Metcalfe, Irankunda; Touré

Turkey: Çakır; Çelik, Demiral, Bardakcı, Kadıoğlu; Yüksek, Çalhanoğlu ©; Güler, Kökçü, Yılmaz; Aktürkoğlu