Despite leaving star names such as Patrice Evra and Franck Ribery on the substitutes bench, the French side still contained household names such as Chelsea duo Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka but struggled during the opening exchanges of the friendly in front of 32,000 at the Stade Gerland.

Left out – Franck Ribery

Whilst the margin of victory appears narrow to observers, the reality was anything but and a France team containing such names were surprisingly and uncharacteristically profligate.

The absence of captain Thierry Henry through injury was a big factor, and under-fire France coach Raymond Domenech would have no doubt hoped for a more convincing win to ease some of the pressure building upon him after last week’s 1-0 loss at the hands of Nigeria.

In a desperate attempt to inject some pace and energy into his squad Domenech recalled Malouda and handed him a starting berth for the first time in eight months, after the Chelsea man publicly criticized his international manager after Euro 2008.

Club mate Anelka operated mostly from the right, in a role now becoming familiar for club and country, and it was the Premier League golden boot winner who had the first chance of the game for the home side, shooting wide after the half-hour mark.

The match then exploded into life seven minutes before half time. Anelka caused Üzülmez Ibrahim all kinds of problems from his wide position and was heavily involved again in France’s goal, winning a penalty under challenge from the Beşiktaş left back.

Ibrahim was sent from the field of play for pulling back Anelka and Lyon striker Karim Benzema, on his home ground, stepped up comfortably to slot the ball past visiting goalkeeper Volkan Demirel.

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To stand any chance of boarding the plane for South Africa next year through automatic qualification, Turkey must achieve a better result against Estonia in September than group leaders Spain attain against Belgium. If not, the only way to qualify will be through a tricky Uefa play-off.

Fenerbahçe striker Semih Şentürk holds the key to a nation’s hopes as the country’s top scorer in qualifying with two, and captain Tuncay will look to avenge the disappointment of Middlesbrough’s season by leading his country to the 2010 finals.

The long road to South Africa began for Turkey with qualification last September, and The Crescent Stars looked well on the way after the aforementioned duo notched a goal apiece to beat Armenia in Yerevan.

Just four days later, an Emre penalty rescued a point against Belgium in Istanbul, and Turkey had to come from behind again in October to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1, thus maintaining their unbeaten record in qualifying.

Fatih Terim: Hopes of a nation

The return leg heralded a dream start for Turkey in Istanbul, taking the lead through Semih after 26 minutes. English referee Mike Riley awarded Spain a penalty just after an hour, converted by Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso, and club mate Albert Riera broke Turkish hearts with a 92nd minute winner.

After the clash with Estonia in Istanbul in September, Turkey face three further vital games against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium and Armenia that will determine whether the squad will have the opportunity to replicate their heroics of 2002, when they finished third in Japan and South Korea.

Fatih Terim has just 13 outfield players available for their Euro 2008, not to mention 1st choice keeper Volkan Demirel suspended.

Turkey are still waiting to hear whether keeper he will have his suspension, for his red card against teh Czech Republic overturned.

“He could come on towards the end as a sub as last man in defence or a centre forward,” he said.

Turkey will go into their semi final against Germany without their leading striker Nihat Kahveci. Kahveci picked up a thigh injury against Croatia in the quarter final and joins an ever expanding injury list.

Turkey will be missing a third of their squad for the semi final through injury or suspension this proves there current run of form really is incredible and they have excellent depth.

Injury List:
Emre Güngör: Calf (out for tournament)
Servet Çetin: Hip and knee (Out of Semi Final)
Tümer Metin: Groin (Out of Semi Final)
Emre Belözoğlu: Hamstring (Out of Semi Final)

Suspensions: Emre Aşık, Tuncay Şanlı, Volkan Demirel and Arda Turan.

The Turks have one player returning to the squad, midfielder Mehmet Aurélio after recieving a ban in the group stage.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilić admitted there was “something special” about Fatih Terim’s side after their thrilling win at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion on Friday night. Turkey’s run to the semi-finals of EURO 2008 has been sensational but what is the secret of their success – and can they reproduce it against Germany in Basel next Wednesday?

When Portugal beat Turkey in their opening Group A game there was no indication of the incredible theatre that was to follow. First Terim’s side stunned co-hosts Switzerland in their own backyard, fighting back from a goal down to clinch victory in the last minute thanks to Arda Turan’s powerful strike. Even more drama came against the Czech Republic when the Crescent Stars (Ay Yıldızlılar) overturned a 2-0 deficit in the final 15 minutes to win 3-2 with two late Nihat Kahveci goals.

The best til last? Turkey forced a penalty shoot out after Croatia scored in the 119 minute. Semih Şentürk driving in via a deflection in the last second of extra time to force penalties.
Turkey won the shoot out 3-1 and now face Germany.

But Turkey have lots of players out for the Semi final: Emre Aşık, Tuncay Åžanlı, Volkan Demirel and Arda all suspended in addition to injuries to Emre Güngör, Servet Çetin, Emre BelözoÄŸlu and Tümer Metin. Terim said in his post-match news conference there should be no limits to his team’s success but can they overcome Germany to reach the final? And what is the secret behind Turkey’s success?

Turkey coach after the match:

I would like to congratulate the Croatia players and coach. They played well but that’s football. You should never give up until the final whistle, that’s what makes football interesting. I congratulate my players, too. Both sides could have won. I think we should be proud and I still haven’t been able to do any damage assessment. Emre Aşık, Tuncay Åžanlı and Arda Turan are all suspended [for Germany] because they were booked here, and we have injured players. We have worked very hard over the last two years and deserve to be in this semi-final. If Croatia had won, I would have said they deserved it too, but I’m delighted we did it. I tell my players never to give up. I set them goals and tell them not to be afraid of losing. I think this team could do even better. If only we could have the injured players back, but even without them, we are special. There is something special about this team.

I hope the people enjoy it and I ask them not to make our joy someone else’s tragedy. No win is worth someone’s life, so I ask the Turkish people to enjoy themselves, celebrate and have fun but not to hurt anyone when they do it. To lose a victory in such a short period of time is a serious mental blow for any team – I thought we would have a chance in the shoot-out because of that. If you look at our run, we have always come back and that’s not easy. Let’s hope against Germany we can take the lead. There is no limit to our success. After Croatia scored, I saw players lying on the pitch and I told Arda to get the ball out of the goal and start again. I wasn’t giving up. We could have lost but there were things we could do about it. I always say there is much more we can do as a country of 70 million people and there is more success we can achieve. We seem to come back from the dead. We always do the hard thing, not the easy thing, which shows how good my team are. When you have footballers like this, you just don’t lose.

Altıntop covered a massive 14.21kms during the quarter final with Croatia the most of anyone on the pitch. He became the playmaker of the team after Mehmet Topal came off the ground and played extremely well in an unpreferred postion. Altintop also provided the sealer in the penalty shoot out netting the final goal in a 3-1 shoot out win this is what he had to say about it:

“We played well as a team and reaching the semi-final is the important thing. It’s vital to be cold-blooded in shoot-outs – you mustn’t show nerves in football. If we carry on this way, and believe in ourselves, we can win the tournament.”

Altintop believes they can beat Germany but preparation is the key:

It’s important that we rest first and then we can analyse Germany with our coach,” he said. “We can beat anybody if we prepare ourselves properly. All the team showed tonight that it’s important to believe in ourselves, in what’s right, and in what our coach tells us. If we continue like this we shouldn’t fear any team.”

Altintop was the man of the match and provided a key role in their win. Turkey on to the semi finals after having 7 first team regulars out that show depth. It will be a big showdown with the Germans and things could get firey.

The match started with Turkey attacking early but the conditions made their attacks difficult and not alot was being created. Turkey missed a chance in the 29th minute seconds later Switzerland had hit the lead. 19-year-old Eren Derdiyok was played through and he showed fine composure to square for Yakin two yards out. The ball stuck in a puddle for what seemed like years but finally reach Yakin who tapped it in for a 1-0 lead.

Turkey came out firing in the 2nd half and managed to equalise in the 58 minute of the head of Senturk. After this the intensity was raised both teams looking for the winner and recieving 4 yellow cards in the process (Hakan Balta, Aurelio and Tuncay for Turkey, and Derdiyok for Switzerland) the game was starting to get heated.

Both teams kept pressing and Arda popped up in the 90+2 to keep the Turkish hopes alive by netting the winner. Turkey have become widely known as the ‘Comeback Kings’ of EURO 2008 and will look to continue this in their semi final.

Turkeys Line Up:
D. Volkan
H. Balta
E. Asik
C. Servet
H. Altintop
A. Turan
T. Metin
M. Aurelio
G. Karadeniz
S. Tuncay
K. Nihat