Turks the latest in great footballing escape
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Turkey's great escape on Sunday to overturn a two-goal deficit and reach the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 at the expense of the Czech Republic marked one of the most dramatic denouements the competition has known.
Giant Czech striker Jan Koller and winger Jaroslav Plasil looked to have made the result safe for the Euro 2004 semi-finalists, but Arda Turan and a brace from Turkish captain Nihat Kahveci in the 87th and 89th minutes turned the match on its head to prompt wild Turkish delight.
The Turks were doubly fortunate they managed to avoid a penalty shootout as they had goalkeeper Volkan Demirel sent off at the death, forcing Tuncay Sanli to see out the match in goal.
The turnaround was quite unlike anything else seen to date at this years event, which has nonetheless not been short on drama, with Holland flooring world champions Italy 3-0 and France 4-1 and Croatia beating Germany.
But the Turkish late show produced a finale scarcely less thrilling than the actual trophy match eight years ago, when France edged out Italy 2-1 having been a goal behind with a minute remaining of normal time.
Sylvain Wiltord levelled to force extra-time and David Trezeguet scored the golden goal winner.
The French were at it again four years ago in Portugal when they scored twice in injury-time in the group phase to down England 2-1.
France also suffered the reverse scenario at the 1982 World Cup when they led the then West Germany 3-1 in extra-time but contrived to draw 3-3 and then lose their semi-final on penalties.
At Euro 2000, Spain came back from 3-2 down to edge Yugoslavia by the odd goal in seven deep into injury-time.
At club level, there have been the two heart-stopping comebacks in recent Champions League finals.
In 1999, Manchester United came back from a goal behind after 89 minutes to defeat Bayern Munich 2-1 in Barcelona with Teddy Sheringham equalizing and Ole Solskjaer pouncing for the winner.
And there was a Turkish connection when Liverpool stunned AC Milan in recovering from 3-0 down at the break to lift the trophy on penalties in Istanbul in 2005.
The Turks comeback on Sunday drew a much larger global audience than the match between Portugal’s and Cameroon’s Under17 teams who met in an Under-17 World Championship group match in 2003 - but the African recovery that day was even more astounding.
Cameroon trailed 5-0 with 21 minutes to go, but the young Indomitable Lions roared back to draw 5-5, aided by an own-goal and a 94th-minute equalizer.