Turkey to play final warm up ahead of Euro 2008

Thursday's match is seen as a test before Turkey's first Euro 2008 game by experts, as Turkey's coach Fatih Terim is expected to give duty in this match to the starting eleven he planned to use against Portugal.

 

However some oppose the idea of considering this match a test, claiming  the Scandinavian and Southeastern European teams’ playing styles are obviously different.

 

Prior to the friendly  match against Finland, Terim withdrew on Wednesday three players; Getafe’s promising defender Ibrahim Kas, Schalke 04’s quick-pace striker Halil Altintop and VfB Stuttgart’s creative midfielder Yildiray Basturk from his final squad for the Euro 2008, reducing the size of the squad to the required 23 players for the championship.

 

Fenerbahce's in form right-back Gokhan Gonul was earlier removed from the squad due to injury.

 

The final line-up for Turkey's Euro 2008 squad is as follows:Â

 

Goalkeepers: 23-Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), 1-Rustu Recber (Besiktas), 12-Tolga Zengin (Trabzonspor).

 

Defenders: 20-Sabri Sarioglu (Galatasaray), 4-Gokhan Zan (Besiktas), 15-Emre Asik (Galatasaray), 2-Servet Cetin (Galatasaray), 3-Hakan Kadir Balta (Galatasaray), 16-Ugur Boral (Fenerbahce), 13-Emre Gungor (Galatasaray).

 

Midfielders: 7-Mehmet Aurelio (Fenerbahce), 6-Mehmet Topal (Galatasaray), 5-Emre Belozoglu (Newcastle United), 11-Tumer Metin (Larissa), 22-Hamit Altintop (Bayern Munich), 19-Ayhan Akman (Galatasaray), 14-Arda Turan (Galatasaray), 17-Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough), 18-Kazim Kazim (Fenerbahce), 10-Gokdeniz Karadeniz (FC Rubin Kazan).

 

Forwards: 8-Nihat Kahveci (Villarreal), 9-Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce), 21-Mevlut Erdinc (FC Sochaux).

 

Turkey lost on Sunday its second warm-up game for the European Championship in a 3-2 defeat to Uruguay, whereas it got a 1-0 win over Slovakia last week.

 

At the Euro, Turkey competes in Group A along with co-hosts Switzerland, 2004 semi-finalists Czech Republic and 2004 finalists Portugal, who they play in their first match on June 7 in Geneva.

 

Photo: AA