Euro 2008: Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic, Switzerland 2-0 Portugal

Jun 16

Turkey’s last minute goals get them a spot at the quarter final

Nihat Kahveci scored twice in a dramatic final four minutes to earn Turkey second spot in Group A and a quarter-final clash with Croatia after thrilling 3-2 defeat of Czech Rpeublic in Geneva.

The Czechs looked home and dry in the 61st minute when Jaroslav Plasil added to Jan Koller’s first-half opener to put his team 2-0 ahead.

But in an amazing end to the winner-takes-all match, Arda Turan halved the deficit in the 75th minute before Nihat came to the party.

The Turkey captain drew the sides level in the 86th minute when he took advantage of a ghastly error by Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech to poke home into an empty net.

And the Villarreal striker sparked delirium among the Turkish fans when he curled home an unstoppable winner with two minutes remaining.

There was still time for Turkey goalkeeper Volkan Demirel to receive his marching orders for an off-the-ball incident involving Koller, but his team held on to record their first win over the Czechs in 12 attempts.

The Croatian Group B winners now lie in wait for the Turks in Vienna on Friday.

Switzerland defeat Portugal 2-0 in an unimportant match. Nonetheless, well done Switzerland!

Hakan Yakin’s slick second-half double gave Switzerland coach Kobi Kuhn a victorious send-off as the co-hosts bowed out of Euro 2008 with three points and a 2-0 win from their final match against a much-changed Portugal side.

The Young Boys midfielder, who also netted his team’s only other goal of the tournament in Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat to Turkey, struck 19 minutes from time and then again from the penalty spot 11 minutes later to secure the triumph.

The Portuguese may count themselves a little unfortunate, having hit the woodwork through both Pepe and Nani, although Gokhan Inler was also denied by the frame of the goal for the Swiss.

With Portugal already guaranteed top spot in Group A and Switzerland knowing they could not climb off the bottom no matter what the result, there was on the face of it little to play for on Sunday.

But both teams played their part in an entertaining affair, with the crowd certainly enjoying themselves and creating a party atmosphere inside Basle’s St Jakob-Park with a Mexican wave in the early stages.

I missed out on reporting yesterdays’ matches due to some network issues. Sweden defeated Spain 2-1 while Russia got the better of Greece in a narrow 1-0 victory.