Czechia 1-2 Turkey: Cenk Tosun strikes late to ship his facet by way of
The A1 autobahn is the longest national motorway in Europe. On Wednesday, much of it seemed to be clogged with cars carrying Turkey fans to Hamburg, flags draped on the bonnets of Mercedes, flying from windows, and fans crowding the service stations.
They packed into the Volksparkstadion on the edge of the city and, together with a Czechia contingent who know how to make noise of their own, they turned the final group game of this European Championship into a riot of passion and colour and drama and tension and an epidemic of yellow cards.
There were 15 in all, a record for this tournament. In fact, there may have been more. It was hard to keep count. The match ended with Hungarian referee Istvan Kovacs showing them to practically every player on the pitch and some who had already been substituted and had come running back on.
He had already sent Antonin Barak off in the first half and now he brandished a red at Tomas Chory for his part in the last-gasp melee. Turkey wonderkid Arda Guler got one, too. The referee was so busy showing cards no one realised the match had ended. It was anarchy.
It was a pulsating game awash with rage and fury. Czechia staged an admirable comeback that unsettled the Turkey fans and gave them plenty of anxious moments as they pressed for a late winner that would have sent Turkey home.
Cenk Tosun struck late as Turkey qualified for last last 16 at Euro 2024 at the expense of Czechia
Georgia’s shock win over Portugal gave the match even more jeopardy for Turkey but they clung on and clung on and then scored a superb added time winner through Cenk Tosun that earned them a round of 16 tie against Austria in Leipzig on Tuesday. The Czechs finished bottom of the group.
The noise at the start was deafening, the volume among the loudest of any match at this tournament so far. ‘Tur-kee-eh, Turk-kee-eh, Tur-kee-eh,’ the fans yelled, over and over and over again. When the Czechs had the ball, the ground was filled with a din of whistling.
But Czechia started more brightly. They broke away and when the ball broke to Lukas Provod, Turkey goalkeeper Mert Gunok had to dive full-length to his left to palm away the fierce 20-yard drive.
Turkey had another scared midway through the half when Robin Hranac rose unmarked in the box six yards out but could only plant his header over the bar. But a few minutes later, the Czechs imploded with absurd ill-discipline.
Antonin Barak had already been booked for tugging Ferdi Kadioglu back by the shirt and when he overran the ball, he lunged in to try to recover it and stamped on the foot of Kenan Yildiz. The referee produced a second yellow and sent him off.
Arda Guler attempted a spectacular bicycle kick that looked goalbound until it was blocked superbly by Ladislav Krejci but soon the game began to grow ill-tempered.
Patrik Schick, the Czech striker, had not made the starting line-up but still managed to get booked for leaping from the bench to protest a foul on Provod. Schick had been booked in the Czechs’ defeat to Portugal so this yellow meant he would miss his team’s first knock-out game if they progressed. It was another ridiculous lapse.
Yildiz was next in the book for a foul on Hranac and Czechia agitated for a second yellow in as many minutes for him when he leapt for a header with Vladimir Coufal and Coufal went down clutching his head. The referee resisted their entreaties.
Despite their misfortunes and missteps, the Czechs still forged the best chance of the half on the stroke of the interval when Provod surged forward from midfield and laid the ball into the path of David Jurasek. Jurasek hit his shot cleanly but Gunok had rushed out to meet it and blocked it at close range with his gloves. Jurasek walked down the tunnel at half time with his head in his hands.
