A great save from Günok prevented Austria from equalising in the penultimate play (1-2)
MADRID, 2 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Turkey’s national football team beat Austria 2-1 on Tuesday, with a brace from a set piece by defender Merih Demiral, and has qualified for the quarter-finals of the men’s Euro Cup, which is being played in Germany and where the Turks will now play against the Netherlands team for a place in the semi-finals.
The match got off to a flying start at Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena. Less than 55 seconds had passed and the Turkish side already had a corner in their favour, which Real Madrid’s Arda Güler took with his left foot from the opposite side and was close to being an Olympic goal. Christoph Baumgartner took it off the line, the ball tripped over his teammate Stefan Posch and goalkeeper Patrick Pentz saved the goal on the goal line with a show of reflexes.
However, Demiral was in the penalty area and fired home from point-blank range to make it 0-1. Far from feeling the effects of the early setback, Ralf Rangnick’s men picked themselves up as soon as the centre was taken, triangulating until Baumgartner’s cross-shot went wide but close to Mert Günok’s goal.
In the 5th minute, a corner taken by Romano Schmid from the left flank with his wrong foot occurred, something similar to the play that led to the 0-1: the ball went around the six-yard box, although in this case nobody touched it, either for the shot or the clearance. After that scare, the respite lasted a quarter of an hour, until Güler shot from the centre of the field.
With Pentz out of the way, the Real Madrid playmaker tried his luck at a goal from a distance. That kept the attacking style going for the Ottomans, who created another threat before the break with a corner kick taken by Güler and headed over the bar by Demiral. It was clear that Austria had to change something to come back.
Michael Gregoritsch and Alexander Prass came on for Romano Schmid and Phillipp Mwene respectively, and that changed the face of the attack. Gregoritsch himself sent a shot wide inside the box after Marko Arnautovic had rushed the byline to cross. However, the ball had crossed the line and the game was cancelled out.
In the 51st minute, a great through ball from Stefan Posch left Arnautovic in front of the Turkish goalkeeper, but Günok bravely came out of the one-on-one and repelled the ball with a knee. Shortly afterwards, a left-footed shot from Konrad Laimer went wide and later another shot from Posch, which was heading towards the opponent’s goal, was cleared for a corner.
The struggles continued and, in the 55th minute, Gregoritsch connected with Arnautovic after another of the latter’s runs; the Austrian captain finished with a chip that went out of bounds, although the offside had invalidated the action. The response a minute later was a slalom from Ferdi Kadioglu that he himself finished with a powerful right-footed shot that tripped over an opponent.
All this preceded the 0-2 (min. 59), the work of Demiral with an unstoppable header, a metre in front of the penalty spot and from another corner kick taken by Güler. The Central Europeans quickly responded with the 1-2, also from a corner; it was taken by Marcel Sabitzer, Posch headed in at the near post and Gregoritsch appeared alone to score from point-blank range at the far post.
From that moment on, Austria’s team went all out on the attack. But neither Florian Grillitsch nor Arnautovic were able to find the final shot that would have equalised. On the opposite bench, Italian coach Vincenzo Montella tried to slow down the pace of the match with several changes, including the withdrawal of Güler.
But Austria’s persistence continued, with Sabitzer sending crosses into the box. Baumgartner headed one of them in the 85th minute, but it went over the bar; and like a déjà vu, after a Turkish chance was missed by Baris Alper Yilmaz, Baumgartner had in his head what would have meant the 2-2 and forced extra time in Leipzig.
In the umpteenth desperate ball launched into Günok’s area, with time already up after the referee’s four minutes added, Baumgartner rose higher than the opposing defenders and his header was brilliantly deflected out for a corner by the Turkish goalkeeper. That was the end of Rangnick’s hopes and their exit from the tournament.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: AUSTRIA, 1 – Türkiye, 2 (0-1, at half-time).
–LINEUPS:
AUSTRIA: Pentz; Posch, Danso, Lienhart (Wöber, min.64), Mwene (Prass, min.46); Seiwald, Sabitzer; Laimer (Grillitsch, min.64), Baumgartner, Schmid (Gregoritsch, min.46); y Arnautovic.
TURQUÍA: Günok; Müldür, Bardakci, Demiral, Kadioglu; Yüksek (Özcan, min. 58), Ayhan; Kökçü (Can Kahveci, min. 83), Yildiz (Aktürkoglu, min. 78), Güler (Yokuslu, min. 78); y Yilmaz.
–GOALS:
0-1, min.1: Demiral.
0-2, min.59: Demiral.
1-2, min.66: Gregoritsch.
–REFEREE: Artur Soares Dias (POR). He gave yellow cards to Schmid (min.38) and Lienhart (min.52) for Austria, and to Kökçü (min.11) and Yüksek (min.42) for Turkey.
–STADIUM: Red Bull Arena (Leipzig), 38,305 spectators.
2024-07-02 21:06:33
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