European Football Championship 2008 / Turkey

This article covers the Turkish national team at the 2008 European Football Championship .

qualification

Game results

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
September 6, 2006	Frankfurt am Main a	Malta	2: 0 (0: 0)	1-0 N. Kahveci (56th), 2-0 T. Metin (77th)
October 7, 2006	Budapest	Hungary	1: 0 (0: 0)	1: 0 T. Şanlı (41.)
October 11, 2006	Frankfurt am Main a	Moldova	5: 0 (3: 0)	1: 0, 2: 0, 3: 0, 5: 0 H. Şükür (35th, 37th, 43rd, 73rd), 4: 0 T. Şanlı
March 24, 2007	Piraeus	Greece	4: 1 (1: 1)	0: 1 S. Kyrgiakos (5th), 1: 1 T. Şanlı (27th), 2: 1 G. Ünal (55th), 3: 1 T. Metin (70th), 4: 1 G. Karadeniz (81.)
March 28, 2007	Frankfurt am Main a	Norway	2: 2 (0: 2)	0: 1 S. Brenne (31st), 0: 2 M. Andresen (41st), 1: 2, 2: 2 Hamit Altıntop (72nd, 89th)
June 2, 2007	Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2: 3 (2: 2)	1: 0 H. Şükür (13th), 1: 1 Z. Muslimović (27th), 2: 1 S. Sarıoğlu (39th), 2: 2 E. Džeko (45th), 2: 3 A. Čustović (89.)
September 8, 2007	Valletta	Malta	2: 2 (1: 1)	1: 0 B. Said (41.), 1: 1 H. Altıntop (45.), 2: 1 A. Schembri (78.), 2: 2 S. Çetin (79.)
September 12, 2007	Istanbul	Hungary	3: 0 (0: 0)	1: 0 G. Ünal (68.), 2: 0 M. Aurélio (72.), 3: 0 Halil Altıntop (90. + 3)
October 13, 2007	Chișinău	Moldova	1: 1 (0: 1)	0: 1 V. Frunză (11th), 1: 1 o. Karan (63.)
October 17, 2007	Istanbul	Greece	0: 1 (0: 0)	0: 1 I. Amanatidis (79.)
November 17, 2007	Oslo	Norway	2: 1 (1: 1)	0: 1 E. Hagen (12th), 1: 1 E. Belözoğlu (31st), 2: 1 N. Kahveci (60th)
November 21, 2007	Istanbul	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1: 0 (1: 0)	1-0 N. Kahveci (43.)

^aThe first three home games in Turkey were - in accordance with the FIFA sanctions - played outside of at least 500 km of the Turkish state borders and to the exclusion of any spectators in the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt am Main .

table

space	team	Games	Victories	draw	defeat	Gates	difference	Points
1.	Greece	12	10	1	1	25:10	+15	31
2.	Turkey	12	7th	3	2	25:11	+14	24
3.	Norway	12	7th	2	3	27:11	+16	23
4th	Bosnia and Herzegovina	12	4th	1	7th	16:22	−6	13
5.	Moldova	12	3	3	6th	12:19	−7	12
6th	Hungary	12	4th	0	8th	11:22	−11	12
7th	Malta	12	1	2	9	10:31	−21	5

The first two teams qualify directly for the EURO 2008 .

Team selection

Turkey is taking part in a European Championship finals for the third time.

On appeal of the squad, there were some surprises, so were Yıldıray Baştürk , Hakan Şükür , Fatih Tekke , İbrahim Toraman , İbrahim Üzülmez , Serdar Özkan , Selçuk Şahin , Gökçek Vederson , Aykut Erçetin , Mehmet Topuz , Umit Karan , Mehmet Yildiz and Gökhan Ünal not nominated by Terim, although some players were part of the squad in qualifying. The newcomers to the team are Colin Kâzım-Richards , who has only played one international match and has mostly played for the Turkish U21s, and Emre Güngör , who has not yet played a game for Turkey. Despite his metatarsal fracture, Hamit Altıntop was also called up for the tournament.

Most of the players are Galatasaray Istanbul (seven). City rivals Fenerbahçe Istanbul have five players, Beşiktaş Istanbul three. The greatest hope is Nihat Kahveci from Villarreal CF ( Primera División ), who scored his club with 18 goals for the runner-up and participation in the UEFA Champions League . The other national players who earn their money in top foreign leagues also count as great hope. At the last European Championships in 1996 and 2000 this was not so often the case.

Preparation for the EM

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:30 p.m., SchücoArena in Bielefeld
Turkey	-	Slovakia	1: 0 (0: 0)
Sunday, May 25, 2008 8:30 p.m., Rewirpowerstadion in Bochum
Turkey	-	Uruguay	2: 3 (1: 1)
Thursday, May 29, 2008, 8:30 p.m., MSV-Arena in Duisburg
Turkey	-	Finland	2: 0 (1: 0)

Turkish contingent

Fatih Terim announced the preliminary roster on May 10, 2008, from which three players were eliminated on May 28: Halil Altıntop , Yıldıray Baştürk and İbrahim Kaş .

Emre Belözoğlu was appointed captain.

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the European Championship	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Rüştü Reçber	Beşiktaş Istanbul	05/10/1973	2	0	0	0	0
12	Tolga Zengin	Trabzonspor	10/10/1983	0	0	0	0	0
23	Volkan Demirel	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	10/27/1981	3	0	0	0	1
Defender
2	Servet Çetin	Galatasaray Istanbul	03/17/1981	3	0	0	0	0
3	Hakan Balta	Galatasaray Istanbul	03/23/1983	5	0	1	0	0
4th	Gokhan Zan	Beşiktaş Istanbul	09/07/1981	3	0	1	0	0
13	Emre Güngör	Galatasaray Istanbul	08/01/1984	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Emre Aşık	Ankaraspor	December 13, 1973	4th	0	2	0	0
16	Ugur Boral	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	04/14/1982	2	1	1	0	0
20th	Sabri Sarıoğlu	Galatasaray Istanbul	07/26/1984	4th	0	2	0	0
midfield player
5	Emre Belözoğlu	Newcastle United	07.09.1980	1	0	0	0	0
6th	Mehmet Topal	Galatasaray Istanbul	03/03/1986	4th	0	1	0	0
7th	Mehmet Aurélio	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	December 15, 1977	4th	0	2	0	0
10	Gökdeniz Karadeniz	Rubin Kazan	January 11, 1980	4th	0	2	0	0
11	Tumer Metin	AE Larisa	10/14/1974	2	0	0	0	0
14th	Arda Turan	Galatasaray Istanbul	01/30/1987	3	2	2	0	0
18th	Colin Kâzım-Richards	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	08/26/1986	3	0	1	0	0
19th	Ayhan Akman	Galatasaray Istanbul	02/23/1977	1	0	0	0	0
22nd	Hamit Altıntop	FC Bayern Munich	December 8, 1982	5	0	0	0	0
striker
8th	Nihat Kahveci	Villarreal CF	11/23/1979	4th	2	0	0	0
9	Semih Şentürk	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	04/29/1983	5	3	1	0	0
17th	Tuncay Sanli	Middlesbrough FC	01/16/1982	3	0	0	0	0
21st	Mevlüt Erdinç	FC Sochaux	02/25/1987	2	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Fatih Terim		09/04/1953

Crew quarters

The Turkish national team moved into their quarters at La Reserve Geneva in Bellevue ( Switzerland ) during the Euro 2008 . They trained at the Center sportif de Colovray in Nyon .

Turkey games

In the first game against Portugal, the red-whites lost 2-0. In the second game against the hosts Switzerland , the team were 0-1 down, but a goal from Semih Şentürk made it 1-1. In the last minute of stoppage time, Arda Turan scored the winning goal and Switzerland out of the tournament at the same time. In the last group game against the Czechs there was a special starting situation for the first time: A draw would not have resulted in a decision on the placement of both teams, as both teams had the same goal difference and number of points. There would have been a penalty shoot-out after 90 minutes to clarify who would make it to the quarter-finals second behind the Portuguese. The Czech Republic led 2-0 up to the 60th minute. Arda Turan scored the connecting goal and a mistake by Petr Čech enabled Nihat Kahveci to make it 2-2 in the 87th minute. Everything looked like a penalty shoot-out. However, Nihat turned the game around completely, because shortly before the end of regular time he scored the winning goal to make it 3-2. Turkey was back in the quarter-finals after 2000. The quarter-finals were Croatia - Turkey. After the regular playing time ended goalless, the game went into overtime, which also remained goalless for a long time. Due to a mistake by Rüştü Reçber , the Croatians took the lead in the 119th minute. Croatia felt like the sure winners, but Semih Şentürk equalized in the 120th minute and saved his side from penalties. The Turks won the penalty shoot-out and were thus in the semi-finals, the opponent was Germany . Despite a good performance against the Germans, the Turks were eliminated from the tournament 2: 3. Reaching the semi-finals is Turkey's best result at a European Championship.

“… The game didn't always go according to plan. Turkey has varied the pace well and they are capable of playing fantastic football. We are glad that we survived ... "

- National coach Joachim Löw of the semi-final opponent : Original sound

Preliminary round

Group A

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Portugal	3	2	0	1	005: 300	+2	06th
2.	Turkey	3	2	0	1	005: 500	± 0	06th
3.	Czech Republic	3	1	0	2	004: 600	−2	03
4th	Switzerland	3	1	0	2	003: 300	± 0	03
For positions 1 and 2 as well as 3 and 4, the direct comparison is decisive (see mode ).

Saturday, June 7th 2008 8:45 pm, Stade de Genève in Geneva
Portugal	-	Turkey	2: 0 (0: 0)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 8:45 p.m., St. Jakob-Park in Basel
Switzerland	-	Turkey	1: 2 (1: 0)
Sunday, June 15, 2008, 8:45 pm, Stade de Genève in Geneva
Turkey	-	Czech Republic	3: 2 (0: 1)

For details see European Football Championship 2008 / Group A

Quarter finals

Friday, June 20, 2008, 8:45 p.m., in Vienna
Croatia	-	Turkey	1: 1 n.V. (0: 0, 0: 0), 1: 3 i. E.

Semifinals

Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 8:45 p.m., in Basel
Germany	-	Turkey	3: 2 (1: 1)

Trivia

• Turkey against the Czech Republic was the first game in European Championship history that could have resulted in a penalty shoot-out in the preliminary round, because before the game both teams had an identical record of three points and 2: 3 goals.
• After his red card in the preliminary round match against the Czech Republic, goalkeeper Volkan Demirel was suspended for two games.
• After the European Football Championship in 2008, Rüştü Reçber and Tümer Metin announced their resignation from the national team.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ EURO classic: Germany 3-2 Turkey. In: uefa.com. UEFA - Union of European Football Associations, May 8, 2020, accessed August 14, 2020 .