STUMBLING into the knockouts appears to be all the rage in Germany.
Turkey are through to the last 16, but made incredibly hard work of it despite playing against ten men for more than 70 minutes.
It wasn’t until the 94th minute that Cenk Tosun made sure of this victory over the Czech Republic, who had caused problems throughout.
Everything seemed to be going against the Czechs. Already without star man Patrick Schick they then lost Antonin Barak to the earliest – and one of the harshest – red cards in Euros history.
They battled on and grabbed a leveller through Tomas Soucek, the West Ham midfielder, but could not cause an almighty shock with a winner which would have sent them through.
Striker Schick was named on the bench but did not warm up with the subs beforehand and was one of two to drop out from the draw with Georgia.
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That didn’t stop him chipping in from the sideline, however, booked for his protests after 35 minutes.
He was one of four players booked on the bench in a game which saw an astonishing 16 yellow cards shown to players by trigger-happy Romanian ref, Istvan Kovacs.
The Czechs started well, pressing Turkey high and creating chances.
Lukas Provod saw a drive sent behind, Tomas Soucek delivered a tricky cross which was just missed by teammates before Robin Hranac headed over.
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They knew everything was on the line and were playing like it – but they were then criminally undone when Barak was shown his second yellow sent packing.
His first booking, in the 11th minute, was a rather soft one for pulling a shirt and the second one also harsh.
Down to, ten they had to dump the plan to get after the Turks and sit in, battle to the end.
Referee Kovacs was helping them make it a bitty game without rhythm.
Turkey were still dominating but struggling for clear cut chances, and the underdogs were still looking to pose a threat on the break.
But Turkey got their opener shortly after the restart.
The Czech defence was firm but being stretched to the limit. First Yildiz drew a fine save from Jindrich Stanek.
That fell to Ismail Yusek on the edge of the box whose effort was charged down by Soucek – but the ball fell back to his feet.
The midfielder was able to feed Calhanoglu who powered a low strike into the far corner.
Czech Republic now needed two goals, but felt like everything was conspiring against them as keeper Stanek was forced off injured after the goal.
But then a bolt of hope. Seconds after Turkey missed a sitter at one end, Yildiz failing to convert Yilmaz’s cross from two yards out, Hammers midfielder Soucek bundled a leveller in.
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Tomas Chory, sent on to mix things up, battled the Turkey goalkeeper Gunok and saw a shot blocked on the line by Samet Akaydin, but Soucek was there to bundle in the rebound.
They continued to fight and cause problems but Tosun delivered the final blow in stoppage time.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
