Small stadium, big reason: Turkey hosts the Red Devils
The Red Devils play Thursday evening against Turkey at the Gürsel Aksel Stadium in Izmir, a modern arena that opened in 2020 and offers only about twenty thousand seats.
Overview Football Cycling Tennis Formula 1 Basketball Cyclo-cross calendar Matches Programs. The article, published on Thursday 12 November 2026 at 11:00, reports that the Red Devils play against Turkey. More info.
When you say Turkey, you automatically think of complete football madness, with Istanbul as the epicentre. Yet the Red Devils did not travel to the big city, but to the seaside resort of Izmir, about 300 kilometres from Istanbul.
Details of the stadium and capacity
The arena opened in 2020 and has already hosted the Turkish Cup final twice, but has only twenty thousand seats, which is few by Turkish standards. By comparison, the Atatürk Stadium has more than 75,000 seats and many other Turkish arenas exceed 40,000, making the choice of a ‘small’ stadium remarkable.
The Turks deliberately choose a smaller venue to travel around the country, to strengthen the nationalist feeling and to avoid the fanatic club fans from Istanbul. Also the 41 VIP suites and skyboxes are a plus; Yordi Yamali stated: “The old boxes are no longer used”.
The Turkish Football Association prefers renovated stadiums with limited capacity, and in the past Izmir proved to be a good host. The Turkish national team has already achieved two victories in Izmir – 2‑0 against Lithuania and 3‑1 against Iceland – and hopes that the Red Devils can break that streak.