Turkey v Czech Republic - Euro 2008

Tuncay is an excellent player, he plays his club football for Middlesbrough at current and has been in incredibly fine form in the 07/08 season. Nihat also is a brilliant player and with Kazim-Ricahards also on the bench this is a Turkish team that is certainly not short of an excellent player or two.

Volkan
Balta, Gungor, Servet, Altintop
Turan, Aurelio, Topal, Tuncay
Senturk, Nihat

The following eleven substitutes were named for Turkey: Ayhan, Rustu, Metin, Sabri, Asik, Erding, Karadeniz, Tolga, Boral, Kazim-Richards.

The Turkish substitutions started flowing at half time when Sarioglu took to the filed in place of Senturk. Kazim-Richards was the second to come on for Turkey, he replaced Topal in the 57th minute and then in the 65th Gungor was taken off and Asik was the man that replaced him.

Jan Koller was said to only have an hour of football in him going into this game, the man is getting on but still has quite a powerful shot on him. Petr Cech in the Czech goal also is a fine force of a man, there are a few weaknesses in this Czech team but also a number of excellent features that help them win games and score many goals.

Cech
Jankulovski, Ujfalusi, Rozehnal, Grygera
Plasil, Matejovsky, Galasek, Polak, Sionko
Koller

The following twelve substitutes were named for the Czech Republic: Blazek, Skacel, Baros, Zitka, Jarolim, Sverkos, Sivok, Pospech, Kadlec, Kovac, Fenin, Vicek.

An injury to Matejovsky in the 39th minute and the Czech Republic team was forced into making a first half substitution; Jarolim was the man that came on, he actually started the first game of the tournament and is no stranger to fitting in to the Czech Republic team. A second substitution was not made until the 80th minute; Kadlec came on for Plasil and a final change was made in the 84th as off came Sionko and on came Vlcek.

This had all the potential of being the greatest game of Euro 2008 thus far, this was the crucial game in Group A; the one that would guarantee qualification for one of these two teams. This one also had the ability to be a history making encounter, it could have gone to penalties had the game been completely level at full time and this would have been an extremely rare occasion indeed. The Czech Republic is a nation with quite a short but still rather successful footballing history, it was crucial that the team won this game but it was also an understandably important one for Turkey also. Going into this game Turkey had only ever won two games in the final stages of a European Football Championship; one of those wins came against Switzerland with a late 2-1 win in this very tournament and the Turkey team was hoping to take that tally to three with this one.

Despite the fact that this game had the potential to be so strong it never really got going in the first half. There were a few moments of promise on display here but the match was by no means exciting. In the 34th minute the lumbering large body of Jan Koller took to the air and his powerful header was directed into the back of the net. Demirel got a hand on it and nearly he prevented the goal from being scored, the ball had a great deal of power behind it however and after coming off the hand of Demirel it rebounded off the bar and hammered home into the back of the Turkish goal. This was a real moment of disappoint for the Turkish team, the Czech Republic did not truly deserve to take the lead and yet they had done so. I say that Czech Republic did not deserve the lead, Jan Koller was however the best player on the field at this point and thoroughly deserving of his superb headed goal. Koller is at an age now where this will most definitely be his final ever international football tournament, he was looking to go out on a high here however and play an exquisitely fine game of football. It was thought that Koller only had an hour in him, he soldiered on to the end of the 90 minutes though and his zestful energy belied his current age as he torpedoed his way around the Czech attack.

As the half time whistle went I felt a little disappointed, it was 1-0 to Czech Republic but not shaping up to be the fine game of football I had been expecting. It was at this point that I actually switched across to the Switzerland-Portugal game to see what was going on there; both games were played at the same time and I was looking to catch up on all the excitement from Switzerland. The other game was 0-0, and having now watched both games (having recorded the other) I have to say that the first halves of both games were really quite disappointing. Fifteen minutes for half time was clearly enough to reenergise all four teams that were playing on this evening, after half time both games were completely different and it was like watching four new teams take part in the Euro 2008 tournament.

There was a lot of fire in the belly of this Czech Republic side, the driven and determined approach of the team continued into the second half and it was no surprise when a second Czech goal came in the 62nd minute. Plasil was the man that scored the second goal for the Czech Republic, it was a sliding second goal for the Czechs and at this point I felt more than a little sorry for the Turkish team. The Czech Republic probably deserved to have scored two goals at this point, Turkey deserved a goal or two also but I certainly wouldn't have begrudged the Czechs the two goals they had scored. When it went to 2-0 to the Czech Republic I was expecting for a third goal to come, it should have been easy for the Czechs to maintain this lead and even if a goal was to be conceded I felt that this Czech team would still have enough about them to go on and win this match from this sort of a position.

The Turkish team certainly left their attack until late on, in the 57th minute Colin Kazim-Richards was brought onto the field of play and this I feel gave the team a little more edge and urgency. Kazim-Richards is a great attacking player, he's played for such football sides as Brighton and Sheffield United; he's all set for an English return this summer and is an extremely explosive forward player. In the 75th minute Turkey brought the game back to 2-1; Turan scored and I personally was overjoyed for the Turkish team. I'm a neutral in this tournament, I'm always rooting for the underdog however and in this game it was Turkey that I wanted to win. Greece won Euro 2004 and if another underdog story could happen in 2008 then that truly would be an excellent and also rather unusual occurrence for the European Football Championship. At 2-1 it would prove a tough task to bring the game back to 2-2, Petr Cech is supposedly the best goalkeeper in the world and at Chelsea he's always a nightmare to get past. Being given 15 minutes to fight from behind and score two past Cech is no small ask, it was going to take a lot for Turkey to get back into this game and the odds were stacked firmly against them.

In the 87th minute there was an extremely rare event indeed; Petr Cech fumbled a gather and Nihat was given the opportunity to put Turkey back on level terms; Nihat did what was asked of him and the score was brought to 2-2. Cech is not a goalkeeper prone to making mistakes, it shows how much pressure was on this Czech Republic team that even he should make such a shocking blunder as this. No one looked more disappointed than Petr Cech at this point, it was clear in his face that he was the most disgusted of all about what had happened and this is something that Cech will surely not be forgetting in a hurry. So that was it then; the game looked all set to go to penalties and the two teams would surely play the next three minutes cautiously in the knowledge that one failed attack and a counter-attack could potentially send them out of Euro 2008. Only that's not quite how it worked out - it took just two more minutes from the second goal being scored for Turkey to take the lead; and what an excellent goal it was too. Nihat scored his second in the 89th, it was an absolute wonder goal and right at the death of the game too. It was an extremely exciting moment for Turkey; the best thing that's ever happened to Turkey in their whole history of playing international football in fact.

With the score at 3-2 all the Turkish team had to do was try and keep the ball as much as possible and play out the rest of the game with great caution. The Turkish team obviously didn't quite understand their precarious position though, in the 92nd minute another Czech Republic goal was nearly scored and Demirel was shown red in the aftermath of it all. Having used all three available substitutions Tuncay was handed the goalkeeper gloves and also the shirt of Demirel which he wore inside out as not to show the name of the carded player. Luckily for Tuncay he did not have to make a single save, the rest of the match was played out comfortably and Turkey sat pretty with a 3-2 win. Demirel need not have caused the further worry, he pushed Jan Koller in the chest and of course he went tumbling to the ground; apparently the big man can not remain on his feet from a little push despite his bulky weight and the referee just had to show a red card to Demirel; it was silly stuff and something that he would have lived to regret had the Czech Republic scored another. As it stands Demirel has ruled himself out of the quarter final game which will probably be against Germany, it would have been the absolute highlight of his career but now he has missed out on his big chance through his own silliness and ridiculously flared temper.

This was one of the most dramatic games of football I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing, from start to finish the match was packed full of tension and never was there a dull moment with this game. If only every match of Euro 2008 could be like this one; it was such a fine game of football and always both sides looked to attack and promised to score. For a neutral this was an absolutely fantastic game, for fans of the Czech Republic however I'm sure that the game was not quite so entertaining. The Czech Republic should have won this game, they had a 2-0 lead and through it all away to eventually suffer a 3-2 defeat. Full credit to Nihat for his two goals; the first was a poachers dream and the second was an absolute classic. This is the greatest that the Turkey team has ever performed in a European Football Championship; the team certainly shined here however and in the final 15 minutes of the game the side showed great composure in being able to score three goals and win a game they looked to be completely out of. Cech will not be a happy man, the whole Turkish nation will be incredibly happy tonight though; I'm sure of that.

Final Score: Turkey 3 - 2 Czech Republic