Euro Wrap, June 15

Group A was decided today with some incredible footy action.

Switzerland beat an under strength Portugal team 2-0. That wasn’t the incredible action (though the Swiss fans enjoyed it.)

The incredible action was Turkey coming from two down to beat the Czech Republic 3-2 and clinch a quarterfinal spot.

GROUP A	June 15, 2045 CET, Geneva (Switzerland)
Czech Republic 2 VS Turkey 3 Koller 34′ Plasil 62′   Arda 75′ Nihat 88′ 89′

Wow. Just wow.

I think a lot of neutrals were hoping for this to finish level and for the much vaunted historic penalty shoot out. Because that would have been dramatic.

But what actually happened was way better then spot kicks.

Jan Koller (Peter Crouch’s less malnourished brother) finally remembered what he was good at and headed the Czechs into the lead. Plasil semi-controversially made it 2-0, scoring while Fatih Terim was fuming on the sidelines that he couldn’t get a sub on to replace the injured Emre Gungor.

And that looked like being that. Until everything went mental.

Arda snuck one past Petr Cech in the 75th and we thought “interesting”. Then Petr Cech dropped a clanger in the 88th and presented Nihat with an open goal and we thought “ooh, penalties.” And then Nihat calmly curled one over Cech in the 89th minute and we thought “this is insane!!!” before finally Turkish keeper Demirel knocked Jan Koller down and got sent off.

Fittingly for a truly wacky finale, Middlesbrough playmaker Tuncay Sanli finished the game playing in goal. It was that kind of night.

Great great comeback from Turkey, which will give them momentum for the quarterfinal against Croatia. Czech Republic will be surprised to be out, but the defending really wasn’t up to scratch. Though Cech dropped that one cross (and will never forget it) he had had to catch about a million more in the second half. If you see him tonight, buy him a drink.

Turkey Euro 2008 Team Blog
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Czech Republic Euro 2008 Team Blog
Buy Czech Republic national team gear here

GROUP A	June 15, 2045 CET, Basel (Switzerland)
Switzerland 2 VS Portugal 0 Yakin 71′, 83′

It was essentially a friendly, but it felt like just a bit more. The game had more than twice the number of fouls than the Czech – Turkey matchup, surprisingly, and featured a not-so-friendly performance from Nani, who committed a solid ten fouls all by his lonesome, just a third over the other game’s total from both sides.

The story going in was there wasn’t one. But the story going out was Hakan Yakin, who began the opening game of the tournament on the bench, perhaps the game which lost them this tournament considering the conditions of the pitch in the second game (making it hard to blame/credit anyone for winning/losing that game).

Hakan scored a brace to make it 3 goals in front of the hometown crowd. The first was a nice little clinical finish after Derdiyok turned the ball into his direction, and the second a PK which was won by the exciting Tranquillo Barnetta. It’s a consolation, but merely that. They can surely consider themselves going out one of the most hard luck teams at this tournament.

Portugal Euro 2008 Team Blog
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Switzerland Euro 2008 Team Blog
Buy Switzerland national team gear here

Group A finished like this:

GROUP A – Teams		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	Portugal	3	2	0	1	5	3	6
	Turkey	3	2	0	1	5	5	6
	Czech Republic	3	1	0	2	4	6	3
	Switzerland	3	1	0	2	3	3	3

Full Euro 2008 group standings here

Bracket Watch : We also learned today the fate of six more points in our Euro 2008 Bracket Predictor Contest. With 26 of 120 points awarded, we still have two perfect scores, Elena from Russia and Furio from California. Check out your standings at bracket.worldcupblog.org.