Turkey delivers big finish
Turkey’s astonishing and implausible run through soccer’s 2008 European Championship continued Friday as the Turks defeated Croatia, 3-1 on penalty kicks, after tying the quarterfinal match, 1-1, on the very last kick in overtime.
The scenes at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna were quite extraordinary.
After a generally drab 90 minutes of regulation and another equally cautious 28 minutes of overtime during which Croatia created and squandered several scoring chances, the game suddenly sprang to life in the last two minutes.
First, veteran Turkish goalkeeper Rustu Recber, filling in for suspended starter Volkan Demirel, appeared to hand Croatia the game on a plate when he raced out of his net to confront playmaker Luka Modric, only for Modric to cross the ball to Ivan Klasnic, who headed it into the empty net.
The 119th-minute goal set off Croatian celebrations, but the game had another twist to come.
Just as Italian referee Roberto Rosetti was preparing to blow his whistle to end the match, Turkey’s Semih Senturk took a left-foot shot that took a deflection and flew past Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa to tie the score at 1-1.
The last-second goal shattered Croatia’s spirit and the players were unable to lift themselves enough for the shootout that followed.
Darijo Srna scored, but Modric and Ivan Rakitic missed the net completely and Mladen Petric’s shot was saved by the 35-year-old Recber, who also inspired Turkey’s fourth-place finish at the 2002 World Cup.
For Turkey, Arda Turan, Semih Senturk and Hamit Altintop scored as the Turks advanced to the last four.
Croatia twice came close to securing the game. Striker Ivica Olic hit the crossbar in the 19th minute and Recber saved the Turks with a diving, one-handed stop seven minutes before the end of regulation.
But it was not to be for the Croatians. “This will haunt me for the rest of my life,” said their coach, Slaven Bilic.
Said Turkey Coach Fatih Terim, who also had charge of the 2002 World Cup team: “I tell my players never to give up.”
In its previous game, Turkey had come from 2-0 down to defeat the Czech Republic, 3-2, scoring two goals in the final three minutes. In the game before that, it had scored in injury time to beat Switzerland.
The Turks will play Germany in the semifinals on Wednesday.
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Jones reported from Los Angeles.
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