Turkey’s Italian coach Vincenzo Montella had said his players would not play with a desire for “revenge” after the 6-1 thrashing they received in a friendly in March. And yet they played with extra soul on Tuesday to surprise one of the most attractive teams at the start of the tournament, which had finished first ahead of France in Group D.
It was a story of corners in a very intense match with many duels in midfield and two teams running from one end of the pitch to the other without counting. Austria took a blow to the head in the first minute: Baris Yilmaz managed to win a corner and Arda Güler, the 19-year-old nugget from Real Madrid, took it very close to the goal. The Austrian defense fumbled when trying to clear the ball and the ball ended up on Merih Demiral. The defender torpedoed it from point-blank range into the net, and the Turkish fans cracked their first smoke bomb of the evening for one of the fastest goals of a Euro (57 seconds).
Demiral scores twice from corners
For Austria, who had won 14 of their last 19 matches and were looking to reach their first quarter-finals at a Euro, the situation was unusual.
Ralf Rangnick’s men threw themselves into the battle to equalise as quickly as possible. In fact, they could have achieved it a few moments later, on a very similar corner, but the ball flew over the goal line, taunting Christoph Baumgartner. The Austrians were unable to create any other big chances, due to the Turks being very attentive and fired up.
After half-time, the Austrians increased the pressure, this time winning the majority of the duels. They created much more dangerous chances than in the first half, including a duel between Marko Arnautovic and goalkeeper Mert Günok (51e) and a dribble from Laimer followed by a shot that was too soft (53e).
And then the Turks took the Austrians by surprise a second time. On a corner there too, struck by an Arda Güler who was decidedly very inspired in this exercise, and who deposited it on the head of Merih Demiral (59e)… We do not change a formula that wins.
Günok makes exceptional save at the end of the match
The Austrians had the merit of reducing the score very quickly… again from a corner. Having come into play a few moments earlier, Michael Gregoritsch did not hesitate to send the ball to the right place (66e), reminding the Turks of his fond memories, against whom he scored a hat-trick during the famous friendly match in March.
The tension among the Turkish fans, who began to hold their heads in their hands a lot, rose a notch. Austria pushed and pushed, but was clumsy, and the Turkish defense was heroic. In particular, goalkeeper Mert Günok pushed away a header from point-blank range by Baumgartner in the last minute, a gesture of immense class worthy of the “save of the century” made by the Englishman Gordon Banks on a header by Pelé at the 1970 World Cup.
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