Sunday, 15 June 2008
Day nine of GroundReport’s exclusive on-the-ground coverage of Euro2008.
Turkey’s football fans will celebrate well into the night after what will go down as the greatest comeback stunt in Euro tournament history.
The Turks came up with three goals in the final fifteen minutes of play to steal victory from the Czech Republic after going down 2-0 early in the match. Striker and captain Nihat Kahveci scored two goals within three minutes of the final whistle to send a stunned Czech team on their way home.
Czech manager Karlan Bruckner, who has announced that he will be retiring from international duty at the end of the tournament, had opted to start the six-foot-eight(202 cm) Jan Koller instead of Lyon striker Milan Baros up-top, and his decision paid dividends in the 34th minute when Koller opened the scoring for his side with a thunderous header past Turkish keeper Volkan Demeril from ten yards out. In the 61st minute, Jaroslav Plasil made it 2-0 in favor of the Czechs, sliding into a Libor Sionko cross that came in from the right wing and poking in the ball past Volkan with his spikes. Plasil should have made it 3-0 when hit the up-right after Libor Sionko squared him a brilliant through-ball five yards out in the 71st minute, and Jan Koller also squandered an opportunity to put the game to rest when he fired wide of the net after a one-on-one breakaway opportunity with Volkan.
In the 75th minute, Arda Turan pulled one back for Turkey, hitting a sizzling low cross from the top of the box past Petr Cech to cap a fine Turkish buildup. The goal provided a spark for the Turks, who began wreaking havoc in the Czech defense, while Petr Cech suddenly found himself scrambling for the first time in the game. Sevet Cetin nearly equalized for Turkey in the 82nd minute when Hamit chipped the ball back into the Czech Republic penalty box from mid-field and found the veteran mid-fielder un-marked with only Cech to beat – but Sevet apparently closed his eyes and froze, because he could not re-direct the cross with his head toward goal.
And then, in the 87th minute, Petr Cech effectively cost his team victory as he spilled what should have been a routine cross from the right side, providing Nihat the ball and a wide open net which the Turkish captain made no mistake about. Two minutes later, in the 89th minute, Nihat collected a through-ball from fellow striking partner Tuncay and fired a wondrous strike into the top corner of the net, putting the Turks up 3-2 after being down 2-0.
In a bizarre twist of events, Volkan Demeril, the Turkish keeper, was shown the tournament’s second red card in the 90th minute when he pushed Koller to the ground following a scramble for the ball in the Turkey’s penalty box. Sevet Cetin had nearly provided the Czechs with another equalizing opportunity when he knocked a long-ball out of his keeper’squo;s hands and gave it straight to Plasil, who could have headed it in but was tackled in his attempt. Volkan will miss Turkey’s quarterfinal match against Croatia, along with his Brazilian-born teammate Mehmet Aurelio, who was shown his second yellow card of the tournament early in the first half. Tuncay finished the match in goal for his ejected teammate.
Turkey have not beaten the Czechs since 1956, and have drawn three times and lost ten times since UEFA began organizing competitive matches in Europe in 1954. They now move onto the quarterfinals of the tournament as runners-up of Group A along with winners Portugal, who lost 2-0 today to already eliminated co-hosts Switzerland. Portugal rested the majority of their starters in what was effectively a inconsequential international friendly match, playing only keeper Ricardo and defenders Pepe and Paulo Farreira from the team that beat the Czechs and Turks in earlier matches.