Turkey came into Tuesday's match against the Czech Republic a beaten and battered team. Spain had beat them up so badly in their last match that they'd pretty much quit on the game, putting themselves in desperate straits if they wanted to advance. They needed a two-goal win just to pass Albania in the third-place standings and give themselves a chance -- something that looked like a difficult task at best, given how poor Turkey had been in their first two matches.
Turkey finally showed their quality against the Czech Republic
Turkey got two big goals to put themselves in position to make the Euro 2016 knockout rounds.
Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Then Burak Yilmaz pulled this out of almost nowhere in the 10th minute and got his team heading in the right direction.
-credit: r/soccer user tyrannosuarezwrecks
It was a high-quality finish off a wonderful pass in from young midfielder Emre Mor, and it showed just how refocused Turkey were after their failures earlier in the tournament. They were sharper, more aggressive and more effective than they’d been at any point of their matches against Spain or Croatia. The Czechs had impressed earlier in the tournament, but they couldn’t do more than threaten Turkey -- they had one truly good chance all match long, and that one clanged off the post.
Turkey still needed one more goal to catch Albania in the third-place finisher standings and use goals scored as a tiebreaker to put themselves in position to make the knockout rounds -- and thanks to Ozan Tufan, they got exactly that.
-credit: r/soccer user papa_poncho
That goal didn’t lock Turkey into the knockout rounds -- there’s still matches to play on Wednesday to finalize things, but they’re in position to make the round of 16. Maybe it’s enough, maybe it’s not, but they did what they had to do against the Czech Republic. That counts for a lot, especially after they struggled so much against Spain and Croatia.
See More:
