Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Turkey gets its own medicine

The semifinal match between Turkey and Germany turned out to be an evenly contested match. I had a feeling that Germany might just steam roll over much depleted Turkish side.

A much-weakened Turkey side had dominated the first half but were only level at half-time after Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger had cancelled out Ugur Boral's opener. The second half was evenly contested by both the sides. Both the sides had a fair chance of scoring the goal in the second half.

Germany took the lead through Klose in the 79th minute. Rustu looked favourite to come out and claim Lahm's lofted cross into the area, but Klose beat both the goalkeeper and Topal to the ball to send a glancing header into an unguarded net.

That might have spelt the end of some side's hopes, but Turkey had proven themselves an obstinate opponent in the three previous matches and, astonishingly, they managed to net yet another late goal.

Sabri sent over a low cross and Semih managed to poke the ball past Lehmann at his near post
After seeing Senturk scoring in last five minutes, I felt that Turkey were going to make history by staging a comeback in the final minutes and go to the Euro Final. But Philip Lahm had other intentions. His 90th minute winner shut the doors for Turkey.

Waiting for the semifinals between Russia and Spain tonight. I would like to see Russia lift the EURO 2008. but let's keep our fingers crossed till that.

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