Turkey does it again
Turkey have suddenly earned the name of "Fight Back Team" in Euro 2008, or should I say, late scorers ? It started in the last match of their group game against Czech Republic, where they were lagging by a goal, and ended up scoring 2 goals in a span of 3 minutes in the dying moments of the match. These goals not only won them the match, they also made them qualify to the quarter finals, knocking out the shocked Czechs.
To the much delight of all the Turks, and fans of Turkey, they did it again !!! Just, that this time the prize was much bigger. They booked themselves a place in the semi finals against the mighty Germans. If the Germans have been watching the way Turks play, I am sure they must be preparing a lot more on their defense tactics, especially in the dying moments of a match.
The second quarter final match of Euro 2008 between, Croatia [ which i thought was the team to win this match !!! ] and Turkey was very close to being a dull match. Croatia must be kicking themselves for rueing their chances they had to score goals. For majority of the 90 minutes, both the teams made good advances, but always found the defenders stealing the ball from them. Towards the 90th minute, people were hoping for the Turkish magic to work, and hoping that they would score the winning goal. But it wasnt to be. The players were all tired and lethargic. All 22 players on the field wanted to play safe and take the game to penalties.
Even in extra time, they seemed to show the same lack of will to score any goals. In the 119th minute of the match, Croatia were delighted to see the Turkish goal keeper, "Rustu", who was having a great day at office, squander away from the goalpost for a moment, to give Croats a great chance to score through an empty goal. The Croats did just that. With just about a minute left in the game, plus some injury time, Croats had almost booked their place in the semis.
But, as it was in their previous match, Turks in a most astonishing way, found an equaliser in the very dying moments [ or should i say seconds ? ] of the match. The Croatian coach was angry at the referee for allowing the game to exceed by "two extra minutes", when the official verdict was to extend the game by only "one minute" as injury time. A match which had nothing to offer to the spectators suddenly turned into anguish and hope for either side of the fans. The equalizer goal from Turkey, made the Croats feel like having lost a winning match. At the same time the Turks were pumped up for the penalty kicks that followed.
The Croats were completely demoralised and 2 of the penalty kicks they took did not even hit the target !!! The pumped up Turks scored all their goals and surprisingly booked themselves a semi finals place against the Germans.
My predictions so far have gone horribly wrong for the knockout matches. Both the teams, Portugal and Croatia, whom i expected to see in the semis have failed to do so. My predictions for the other 2 quarter final matches are Netherlands and Italy. Its gonna be fun to see how these predictions shape up :)
To the much delight of all the Turks, and fans of Turkey, they did it again !!! Just, that this time the prize was much bigger. They booked themselves a place in the semi finals against the mighty Germans. If the Germans have been watching the way Turks play, I am sure they must be preparing a lot more on their defense tactics, especially in the dying moments of a match.
The second quarter final match of Euro 2008 between, Croatia [ which i thought was the team to win this match !!! ] and Turkey was very close to being a dull match. Croatia must be kicking themselves for rueing their chances they had to score goals. For majority of the 90 minutes, both the teams made good advances, but always found the defenders stealing the ball from them. Towards the 90th minute, people were hoping for the Turkish magic to work, and hoping that they would score the winning goal. But it wasnt to be. The players were all tired and lethargic. All 22 players on the field wanted to play safe and take the game to penalties.
Even in extra time, they seemed to show the same lack of will to score any goals. In the 119th minute of the match, Croatia were delighted to see the Turkish goal keeper, "Rustu", who was having a great day at office, squander away from the goalpost for a moment, to give Croats a great chance to score through an empty goal. The Croats did just that. With just about a minute left in the game, plus some injury time, Croats had almost booked their place in the semis.
But, as it was in their previous match, Turks in a most astonishing way, found an equaliser in the very dying moments [ or should i say seconds ? ] of the match. The Croatian coach was angry at the referee for allowing the game to exceed by "two extra minutes", when the official verdict was to extend the game by only "one minute" as injury time. A match which had nothing to offer to the spectators suddenly turned into anguish and hope for either side of the fans. The equalizer goal from Turkey, made the Croats feel like having lost a winning match. At the same time the Turks were pumped up for the penalty kicks that followed.
The Croats were completely demoralised and 2 of the penalty kicks they took did not even hit the target !!! The pumped up Turks scored all their goals and surprisingly booked themselves a semi finals place against the Germans.
My predictions so far have gone horribly wrong for the knockout matches. Both the teams, Portugal and Croatia, whom i expected to see in the semis have failed to do so. My predictions for the other 2 quarter final matches are Netherlands and Italy. Its gonna be fun to see how these predictions shape up :)
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