European Football Cup 2008’s Weblog

The UEFA EURO 2008™ catchphrase may be Expect Emotions but not even the most pessimistic of Switzerland fans could have envisaged plummeting such depths of despair after only two games of the tournament.

Heartache
The serious injury suffered by captain Alexander Frei was perhaps the harbinger of doom as Köbi Kuhn’s co-hosts lost, arguably unluckily, to the Czech Republic in Saturday’s Group A curtain-raiser. But at least fans of the Nati held on to hope going into Wednesday’s match against another point-less team, Turkey. Coming out of it, though, they had nothing but a lost dream and a guaranteed wooden spoon in the group. Arda Turan’s 92nd-minute knife through the heart summed up the Swiss campaign – deflecting, decisively, off the heels of defender Patrick Müller and over goalkeeper Diego Benaglio. A slice of awful luck.

Continue reading Swiss left crying in the rain…

Hamit Altıntop has hope for Turkey’s Group A finale after their 2-1 win against Switzerland, saying: “If we play like we did in the second half, there is nothing to fear.”

Second-half recovery
A goal down at half-time after Hakan Yakin put the co-hosts ahead amid a fearsome downpour in Basel, Turkey restructured at half-time, bringing on Mehmet Topal and Turkish Süper Lig top scorer Semih Şentürk. They were rewarded as Semih scored their 57th-minute equaliser before midfielder Arda Turan grabbed all three points with a deflected winning goal in added time.

Continue reading Turkey take heart from Basel win…