Hungary’s Dominik Szoboszlai has delivered a brutal comeback to Arda Güler after he was ‘shushed’ by the Turkey international during their Nations League play-off second leg.
For the first time in their history, Turkey secured promotion to the top tier of the Nations League on Sunday as they recorded an emphatic 6-1 aggregative win over Hungary.
After taking a 3-1 lead going into the second leg in Budapest, Vincenzo Montella’s side breezed past their opponents, with Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Arda Güler and Abdülkerim Bardakcı finding the net.
It was a comfortable victory for the visitors but rather than the scoreline, an altercation involving Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai and Real Madrid playmaker Arda Güler grabbed headlines.
As you can see from the picture below, Guler could be seen placing a finger to his lips in a ‘shushing’ gesture to Szoboszlai, shortly after scoring Turkey’s second goal of the night.
It is said the pair clashed during a heated friendly in March 2024, when Szoboszlai scored the winner for Hungary in a 1-0 win.
And after the full-time whistle, Szoboszlai made his way over to the Instagram page of Hungarian outlet Nemzeti Sport to post a comment on a picture of Guler ‘shushing’ him during the Nations League play-off clash.
Here, the 24-year-old commented “1088”, which is the amount of minutes Guler has played for Real Madrid this season.
As you can imagine, fans on social media were quick to react to Szoboszlai’s post.
One said: “Szoboszlai got straight into the dressing room and googled how many minutes Arda Guler has played this season, this is the level of hater I aspire to be.”
A second wrote: “Assists in the 24/25 season. Arda Guler – 5 assists in 1088 minutes. Szoboszlai – 5 assists in 2887 minutes.”
A third commented: “Arda said shut up and do your talking on the pitch. I guess the message didn’t get through,” while a fourth said: “Need more of this.”
A fifth added: “Arrogance and ego is back in football. I used to pray for times like this.”
Szoboszlai left the comment ‘1088’ on the Instagram post. Image credit: nso.hu
Guler, who signed for Real Madrid from Fenerbahce in the summer of 2023, has struggled for regular first-team minutes under Carlo Ancelotti.
After making just 12 appearances in his debut campaign for Los Blancos, the talented playmaker has made 31 appearances this season, but 21 of those have come from the subs bench.
“He’s an exceptional footballer. We all know his talent and what he can contribute,” said Turkey manager Vincenzo Montella.
“It’s a well-known and generally accepted trend that players with a continuing presence at their clubs tend to be called up to the national team. But we must be understanding of Arda.”
