Turkey have reached the knockout round of a European Championship for the first time since 2008. Vincenzo Montella's team secured second place in Group F with a 2:1 win over the Czech Republic.
Turkey and the Czech Republic have previously met twice at a European Championship. The Turks have emerged victorious twice. It was not quite as dramatic in Hamburg as at the 2008 finals, when the Turks turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 victory in the final quarter of an hour to advance to the knockout round. But this game was also a tough one.
After Hakan Calhanoglu's opening goal in the 51st minute, everything pointed to a peaceful evening for Turkey. At this point, the 2002 World Cup bronze medallists had already been outnumbered for more than half an hour. Antonin Barak had received his second yellow card after 20 minutes for a foul on Salih Özcan and was sent off by referee Istvan Kovacs. The Czech had received the first, harsh warning for holding.
However, the Turks almost gave away this advantage just a little later in the person of Kenan Yildiz. The 19-year-old from Juventus Turin first stepped on Robin Hranac's Achilles tendon with an open sole and was well served with a yellow card. Just one minute later (!), Kovacs judged the Turkish player's elbow on Vladimir Coufal's head as not worthy of a yellow card.
However, the Czechs did not let these low blows get them down. Before the break, they had the best chance of the entire first half through David Jurasek. After a counter-attack, the Hoffenheim man failed to beat Mert Günok alone in front of goal.
It was Günok who was at the origin of the equalizer: The Turkish goalkeeper dropped the ball after 66 minutes and an aerial duel with Thomas Chory. Thomas Soucek brought the tension back into the game with the 1:1.
Despite being outnumbered, the Czechs pressed for the winning goal in the final phase, which would have sent them through to the round of 16. But it was Turkey who made it 2-1 through Cenk Tosun after a counter-attack in stoppage time.
Telegram and table:
Czech Republic - Turkey 1:2 (0:0)
Hamburg. - 47'683 spectators. - Referee Kovacs (ROU). - Goals: 51st Calhanoglu 0:1. 66th Soucek 1:1. 94th Tosun 1:2.
Czech Republic: Stanek (55. Kovar); Holes, Hranac, Krejci; Coufal, Soucek, Provod (75. Lingr), David Jurasek (81. Matej Jurasek); Barak; Chytil (55. Kuchta), Hlozek (55. Chory).
Turkey: Günok; Müldür, Akaydin, Demiral, Kadioglu; Güler (76. Tosun), Yüksek (63. Yokuslu), Calhanoglu (87. Kökcü), Özcan (46. Ayhan), Yildiz (76. Aktürkoglu); Yilmaz.
Comments: Turkey without Bardakci (suspended). 20. yellow-red card against Barak. Cautions: 11 for Barak. 31st Özcan. 35. Schick (on the bench). 37th Yildiz. 49th Yüksek. 65th Günok. 66th Calhanoglu. 68th Cakir (on the bench). 81st Müldür. 85th Jaros (on the bench). 85th Cerv (on the bench). 85th Akaydin. 91st Krejci. 95th Ayhan. 95th Kökcü.
1. Portugal 3/6 (5:3). 2. Turkey 3/6 (5:5). 3. Georgia 3/4 (4:4). 4. Czech Republic 3/1 (3:5).
