Turkey triumph in Vienna shoot-out
June 21, 2008 at 12:12 am | In Croatia, Turkey | 4 CommentsTags: Arda Turan, Croatia, Emre Asik, Fatih Terim, Hamit Altintop, Ivan Klasnic, Luka Modric, Mehmet Aurelio, Mehmet Topal, Robert Kovac, Rustu Recber, Semih Senturk, Slaven Bilic, Tuncay Sanli, Turkey, volkan demirel
Turkey are through to the semi-finals of the UEFA European Championship for the first time at Croatia’s expense after a thrilling match in Vienna was decided on penalties after the two sides had swapped goals in the final moments of extra time.
Sensational comeback
When Ivan Klasnić headed in Luka Modrić’s cross with a minute of the overtime period to play, Croatia looked to have booked their place in Wednesday’s semi-final against Germany. However, for the third game running, Turkey sensationally hit back at the death to force the first shoot-out of these finals when Semih Şentürk drove in, with the aid of a deflection, from just inside the area. They went on to win 3-1 on penalties after Rüştü Reçber saved Mladen Petrić’s kick following earlier misses from Modrić and Ivan Rakitić. Turkey coach Fatih Terim, though, will struggle to get a team together to play Germany with Emre Aşık, Tuncay Şanlı and Arda Turan all suspended along with Volkan Demirel after being booked here.
How far can Croatia go?
June 13, 2008 at 11:34 pm | In Croatia | Leave a CommentTags: Croatia, Ivan Rakitic, Ivica Vastic, Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Slaven Bilic
Just 383 days. That is the age gap between Slaven Bilić and Ivica Vastic, two of Thursday’s prime movers but men pushing at totally opposite extremes in their respective trades. While one is the youngest coach in the competition and potentially the youngest ever to lift the trophy, the other is the tournament’s oldest player – and the man whose last-minute equaliser for Austria cemented top spot in Group B for Bilić and his charges.
Tournament contenders
Thanks to Vastic’s strident spot-kick, Croatia will avoid Portugal in the quarter-finals, a meeting many thought they were not only destined for but destined to lose. No-one will be quite so quick to write them off now, and Bilić’s pre-match comments that “any team that beats Germany can hope to beat anybody” will find real resonance when the tournament contenders are next tallied up. But what do you think? Can the mobility and technique of Luka Modrić, Niko Kranjčar and Ivan Rakitić see them through to the end or will more dynamic teams than Germany expose Robert Kovač and Josip Šimunić’s lack of pace at the back?
Modric and Croatia rise to occasion
June 13, 2008 at 6:49 am | In Croatia | Leave a CommentTags: Crotia, Luka Modric
Luka Modrić may not have been among the goals in Croatia’s 2-1 Group B victory against Germany, but his “outstanding contribution” in Klagenfurt was enough to earn the midfielder the Carlsberg Man of the Match award.
Mature game
While Darijo Srna and Ivica Olić got on the scoresheet for Croatia, before Lukas Podolski halved the deficit eleven minutes from time, the 22-year-old Modrić again impressed with his maturity and all-round play. After receiving the award, he said: “It means a lot to me. I am very happy with it but the most important thing is that we won and played very well. We were motivated and wanted to show everybody that we had a bad day against Austria. When our opponents are strong we play our best football and this is what we did against Germany. Expectations have been great and now I believe we have shown that we can rightly aspire to great things here.”
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