Nick Ames was in Berlin. Here’s his report! Congratulations to the Netherlands, who can look forward to a semi-final with England; commiserations but most importantly thanks to Turkey, who have brought so much beautiful noise and the best entertainment; thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
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Turkey gave everything but this time it wasn’t quite enough. Samet Akaydin gave them a deserved first-half lead, heading home Arda Güler’s delicious cross from the right, the assist of the month. They were so close to going two goals up, only for Wout Weghorst of all people to deny Kaan Ayhan from six yards. Then they tired. Weghorst then forced a corner that led to Stefan De Vrij’s equaliser, before Mert Müldür stopped Cody Gakpo from tapping home a dangerous Denzel Dumfries cross … but only by diverting the ball into the net himself. Turkey had chances to equalise, Bart Verbruggen making a late point-blank wonder save from Semih Kılıçsoy, but they couldn’t find another goal to save themselves. They’ve lit up this tournament with some gloriously entertaining football, and on another day maybe this match would have gone their way. But it’s the Dutch who set up a semi-final against England, after digging themselves out of trouble with a thrilling second-half fightback. Even better than Turkey’s game with Austria? Maybe. Perhaps!
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FULL TIME: Netherlands 2-1 Turkey
The Dutch will play England in a Dortmund semi-final on Wednesday!
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90 min +6: Turkey coach Vincenzo Montella is shown a yellow card. Bertuğ Yıldırım a red one. That’s not bad going by Yıldırım, who hasn’t played a minute in Germany but has still managed to get himself sent off. Passions running high as time runs out.
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90 min +5: A cross into the Dutch box from the left. Van Dijk stands his ground and takes the clattering from Güler. A free kick, and Netherlands are so close to the semis now.
90 min +4: Tosun is booked for telling it as he sees it.
90 min +3: Çalhanoğlu takes a shot from the edge of the Dutch box. Dumfries slides across to block. Outstanding defence. Turkey will be wondering how they’ve not found an equaliser to send this match into extra time.
90 min +2: Nothing comes from the set piece. Shades of Günok against Austria by Verbruggen there.
90 min +1: In the first of five additional minutes, Verbruggen makes an outstanding point-blank save from Kılıçsoy, who had met a cross whipped in from the left and looked sure to score!
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90 min: Gakpo slams a shot straight at Günok. Then a free kick for Turkey out on the right. Çalhanoğlu swings it in. Aktürkoğlu meets it at the far post, but flaps a header carelessly wide. It’s not as though Turkey aren’t making chances!
89 min: Semih Kılıçsoy comes on for Ayhan.
88 min: Çelik crosses from the right. Tosun heads wide left from ten yards. Turkey are pushing hard for this precious equaliser!
87 min: Jeremie Frimpong and Joshua Zirkzee come on for Simons and Depay.
85 min: Two huge chances for Turkey to equalise! Both are sensationally blocked! Aktürkoğlu crosses low from the left; Verbruggen can only tip out to Çelik, whose low goalbound drive from the right-hand corner of the six-yard box is stopped on the line by Van de Ven. Then the ball’s returned to Aktürkoğlu in space on the left. His low curler is blocked by Schouten and cleared. Unbelievable bedlam! This is Turkey!
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84 min: The new subs combine immediately for Turkey, Çelik crossing from the right, Tosun sending a header powerfully but harmlessly wide right.
82 min: Akaydin and Müldür, both unfortunate in differing ways, are replaced by Zeki Çelik and Cenk Tosun.
81 min: Van de Ven and Akaydin slide in together, competing for a 50-50 ball. The Turkish defender comes off worse, completely accidentally, and it doesn’t look as though he’ll be able to continue. On comes the stretcher.
79 min: Müldür, who was sleeping and should never have let Gakpo in ahead of him for the goal, tries to make amends with a cross-cum-shot from the right. Verbruggen claims.
78 min: That was a scrappy goal, though the cross was hellishly difficult to deal with. Turkey respond by replacing Salih Özcan and Kenan Yıldız with Okay Yokuşlu and Kerem Aktürkoğlu.
GOAL! Netherlands 2-1 Turkey (Müldür og 76)
Dumfries, in space, crosses low from the right. It dribbles through the six-yard box. Gakpo gets in ahead of Müldür at the far post. Müldür attempts to regain ground, but can only divert the ball across Günok and into the net!
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75 min: Depay is sent scrambling into the Turkish box by Gakpo’s pass down the left. He can never quite sort his feet out to get a shot away, and has to settle for a corner that comes to nothing. But the Netherlands suddenly look a different side. Goals, eh?
74 min: Netherlands were preparing a triple change before the goal; instead they just swap out two players. Off go Nathan Aké and Tijjani Reijnders, on come Micky van de Ven and Joey Veerman.
72 min: Did Günok need to turn that Weghorst shot around the post? Should he have done better with De Vrij’s header? Questions for later.
GOAL! Netherlands 1-1 Turkey (De Vrij 70)
Depay one-twos the corner short, then whips into the box. De Vrij, inexplicably unmarked on the penalty spot, heads powerfully down and into the bottom-right corner. The Dutch level!
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70 min: Weghorst meets a deflected cross from the left at the far stick. Anything across goal and Gakpo is tapping home from six yards. Instead he attempts to score himself from a tight angle. Günok turns the shot around the post, and from the resulting corner …
68 min: The “home” fans continue to whistle Netherlands in ear-splitting style. Theirs is one of the collective performances of the tournament.
66 min: Turkey wanted a penalty, but it was a brilliant intervention by Weghorst. Nothing comes of the corner. The big man was sent on to get Netherlands back into this; he might have just kept them in the Euros in a rather more unexpected way.
65 min: Absolute bedlam in the box! The free kick breaks to Yıldız on the edge of the box. He shoots. Verbruggen parries. Ayhan prepares top slam home the rebound from six yards, only for Weghorst of all people to extend a leg from nowhere and poke out for a corner!
64 min: Gakpo pings a pass to Depay, whose burst towards the box causes a spot of discomfort for the Turks. But still Netherlands can’t get a shot away. Turkey counter through Yılmaz down the right, and Van Dijk, about to be skinned on the outside, picks up a booking for shoving his opponent to the ground. Turkey load the Dutch box for the free kick.
62 min: The Dutch stay patient. But Turkey are holding their shape, and so they’re going nowhere. An ear-splitting cacophony of whistling from the Turkish end.
60 min: Gakpo again crosses from the left. Not so good this time. Straight out for a goal kick. A few Dutch frowns of frustration. Time’s not an issue quite yet. But it soon will be.
58 min: This game is so much fun. Turkey are a joy to watch.
57 min: Depay has a whack from 25 yards. A vicious daisycutter that’s well handled by Günok.
56 min: Güler is outrageously good. From the best part of 30 yards, he takes the free kick and drives a low curler around the wall and off the outside of the left-hand post. It’s a sensational effort, and Verbruggen may well have fingertipped that onto the woodwork. Turkey don’t get the corner, though. Fair’s fair, Netherlands didn’t get theirs either. What a free kick, though!
55 min: Güler chases a Yıldız flick down the middle. He’s bowled over by Aké, who is booked and rather fortunate that De Vrij was nearby. Otherwise, he’d have been the last man, and most likely off.
54 min: Gakpo, from a deeper position on the left, swings a vicious cross into the mixer. With Weghorst lurking, hoping to smash a header home from six yards, Akaydin eyebrows out for a corner … which isn’t awarded to Netherlands, much to Weghorst’s annoyance.
53 min: Gakpo steams down the left, reaches the byline, and crosses into the box. Weghorst can’t get near this one and Turkey clear. But there’s the plan.
51 min: Aké crosses diagonally from the left. Weghorst wins a header on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. He sends the ball across the face of goal, and somehow Depay fails to connect, sliding in. He should have put the ball in the net. It wouldn’t have counted, mind, with Weghorst having been a yard offside. But there’s the plan.
49 min: … but otherwise, it’s been a slow, patient start to the second period by Netherlands.
47 min: De Vrij goes long. Depay hopes to head down for Weghorst, but his presence is enough to win a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but there’s a first glimpse of the Dutch mixing it up a bit.
Turkey get the ball rolling for the second half. Netherlands need to do something different, because in the first half they didn’t force Turkey goalkeeper Mert Günok into any sort of meaningful work. And so on comes Wout Weghorst for Steven Bergwijn.
Half-time postbag. “I’m finding it quite strange to watch these two teams. How is it that I’m able to immediately recognize which position everyone is playing in, and why are they moving together intelligently and utilising space in efficient ways? Perhaps I’m still confused and disoriented from trying to figure out what England was trying to do against Switzerland” – Russell Eberts
“That header - I think the approved football cliche is ‘thumping’, right? - made me happy right to my withered centre-back heart” – James Humphries
“After the pedestrian England match, this feels like both teams have been told that the Golden Goal rule is back but applies from the first minute. Tournament atmosphere can feel a bit deflated when the home nation goes out, but Turkey feel like a surrogate host” – Andy Gordon
“It’s nice to see the Turks have a good tournament, which they’ll have had even if the Dutch pull off a win. Turkey is a bit like Poland, a football mad nation that rarely has a team befitting their love of the game. Watching their fans is thrilling, and thankfully the side is too” – Kári Tulinius
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HALF TIME: Netherlands 0-1 Turkey
The Dutch started the half well but Turkey were much the better side by the end of it, and deserve their lead at the break. As the teams walk down the tunnel, Arda Güler looks animated about something and Samet Akaydin and Abdülkerim Bardakcı are both required to put an arm around the young man to calm him down. Slightly strange.
45 min +1: A lot of Dutch passing. A lot of whistling. They go nowhere.
45 min: There will be two additional first-half minutes.
44 min: A bit of space for Gakpo down the right. He’s got team-mates to hit in the middle, but smashes his cross into the nearest defender, and the ball falls gently into Günok’s arms.
42 min: Bergwijn hoicks over harmlessly from 25 yards. Günok hasn’t had any serious work to do yet.
41 min: Yılmaz romps after a long pass down the left. Dumfries looks to have it covered, but Yılmaz overpowers him. He’d be one on one with Verbruggen, except he loses his footing and slips. Netherlands need to watch out, because Turkey aren’t going to stop coming at them.
40 min: Dumfries, Depay and Gakpo attempt to dink their way down the middle of the park. It’s a dangerous combination of passes, but then Gakpo wanders offside and the flag goes up.
38 min: … and the Olympiastadion is bouncing as a result. As you’d expect. Turkey fans en fête.
37 min: That was the cross of the tournament, without question. Proper leg-as-magic-wand stuff that took out the entire Dutch defence, pretty much! Güler is an assist machine! Good luck stopping him, England, if Turkey get through.
GOAL! Netherlands 0-1 Turkey (Akaydin 35)
The corner from the left reaches Güler on the right. From the edge of the penalty box, he takes a touch to make enough space, then with his less-favoured foot curls an outrageous outswinging ball to the far stick. Verbruggen, flapping, is out of the game, as are all of his defenders. Akaydin, one of three Turks lining up to take advantage, can’t miss from a couple of yards, and crashes a header home!
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35 min: Dumfries ushers a ball out for a goal kick … except it had come off one of his team-mates, and it’s a gift of a corner for Turkey. And from that …
34 min: A Turkish corner on the right. Guler hits it long and Yıldız attempts to dispatch a volley into the top-right corner. Always wide, always high, but full marks for ambition.
32 min: Simons goes into the book after standing on Müldür’s ankle. It looked clumsy rather than malicious – he was stretching to regain possession having overrun the ball – but he wasn’t in control and Müldür could have been seriously injured. Thankfully that’s not the case, but it’s a surprise that VAR doesn’t take a second look at that one. Simons could easily have been sent off there.
30 min: Yılmaz chases a long pass down the inside-right channel. It looks as though he’ll get ahead of Van Dijk and sprint clear, but the Dutch captain channels his peak-era self and wrestles his way back in front.
28 min: De Vrij tries to barge his way up the middle of the park but gets too physical. Free kick. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Dutch box for the free kick. Çalhanoğlu shovels it down the inside-left channel. Bardakcı sticks out a leg and volleys wildly over the bar.
26 min: Yılmaz busies himself to win a corner off Van Dijk down the right but nothing comes of it. Both teams continuing to go for it.
25 min: Bergwijn tries to power his way past Kadıoğlu on the right. Kadıoğlu, whose tousled mane earns him a full score of 11 on our patented Indie-Bass-Player-o-meter™, sticks out a leg to put a stop to Bergwijn’s gallop and earns a goal kick into the bargain.
23 min: Çalhanoğlu looks long down the right and nearly releases Yıldız. Reijnders sticks out a telescopic leg to intercept the dropping ball. That’s fine defending, because had he not intervened, the Dutch were in a spot of trouble.
21 min: It’s Yılmaz up the other end now, chasing after a long ball down the right. He’s got no right to keep the ball in play, but somehow manages it. The ball’s eventually pulled back for Çalhanoğlu, whose fierce shot slaps Van Dijk flush in the grid, before deflecting out for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece. A nice open game, this.
19 min: Gakpo goes down again, on a dribble along the left touchline; once more he doesn’t get the decision. Yılmaz might have had a little nibble at him there.
18 min: Akaydin survives. The match restarts and Gakpo embarks on a stunning dribble down the middle. Stunning until he loses control of his legs, Bambi style, that is, and eventually falls over. A shame, because something exceptional was threatening to unfold. He might have been nicked on the heel earlier in the run, to be fair.
16 min: Simons dinks a ball down the inside-left channel to release Gakpo, who is offside and also accidentally high-kicks Akaydin before landing on him. That’s an unfortunate double whammy for the defender, and he requires some treatment.
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14 min: … so having just typed that, Netherlands hog the football for a bit, taking the sting out of the game.
12 min: Now it’s Simons’ turn to lash a long-distance effort over. This match has started in the hectic free-jazz manner we expected.
11 min: Özcan has a dig from distance. Over the bar. Netherlands go up the other end, Dumfries crossing from the right, a misfire that nearly foxes Günok, heading for the top left and only just clearing the bar.
10 min: Another long Turkey ball. Yılmaz and De Vrij battle under it. The pair fall over. Turkey want a free kick … and a possible red card for De Vrij? … but the referee waves play on. Nowt more than a 50-50 tussle? Well, De Vrij had a handful of his opponent’s shirt and seemed to tip him over. You’ve seen decisions given for much less.
9 min: Çalhanoğlu is down having taken an accidental whack on the heel from Simons. He looks in a lot of pain, but thankfully it seems to be just the sting of initial impact, because quickly enough he gets back up again.
7 min: Dumfries crosses low from the right. Depay attempts to spin and shoot, ten yards out, but can’t get an effort off. The ball breaks to Gakpo on the left; he squirts a weak shot across goal and out for a goal kick, then the flag goes up for offside anyway.
6 min: Turkey have settled a bit now. They’re looking to hit Yılmaz and Güler with long passes. Meat and drink for Van Dijk and Aké for now.
4 min: This is the first time Netherlands and Turkey have ever met at a finals. The Dutch are dominating the early stages, and the whistles from the Turkish fans are ear-splitting. Finally Turkey get hold of the ball and Kadıoğlu probes down the left but there’s nowhere to go.
2 min: Well what a start that would have been. Depay should have forced Günok into a save at the very least. Space had opened up for him.
59 sec: … and one second later, Depay dribbles in from the right and into the box before leaning back and launching a rocket vertically. Miles over the bar. A great chance to give Netherlands a very early lead.
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58 sec: Netherlands have already held out longer than Austria did in the last round …
Netherlands get the ball rolling. The Olympiastadion is rocking. “They also suffer who sit and wait (and watch the appallingly tedious quarter-finals so far),” begins a jaded Charles Antaki. “If there’s any justice in the football world, then this will be a rip-roarer of a game, with goals, near-misses, diving headers, 60-metre dribbles and a fist-fight in the dugout. But since there actually isn’t any justice in the football world, it’ll be another 1-1 going to penalties. Pshaw.”
The teams take to the pitch. The Netherlands in oranje, Turkey in white. Everyone looks lovely. Coins will be tossed, pennants swapped, fists bumped, and songs sung of William of Nassau and coy crescents. Once all that’s taken care of, it’ll be football all the way. Soccer!
The winner of this tie will play England at the Westfalenstadion in the second semi-final on Wednesday. Barry Glendenning has the story of their dramatic win on penalties over Switzerland.
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Style guide:
GEORGE: What is Holland?
JERRY: What do you mean, ‘what is it?’ It’s a country right next to Belgium.
GEORGE: No, that’s the Netherlands.
JERRY: Holland is the Netherlands.
GEORGE: Then who are the Dutch?
For once George is right: according to the official Guardian style guide, “Holland should not be used to mean the Netherlands (of which it is a region)”. But then you knew that already, and can see straight through my transparent ruse to crowbar in this classic Monk’s Café-infused back-and-forth.
As for Türkiye, Turkey is still Guardian style, so that’s why this MBM will go with that.
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Turkey: co-hosts, for all intents and purposes. It’s fair to say the Turkish diaspora in Germany have made their mark at this tournament, and tonight in Berlin is no exception …
… though to be fair to the Dutch, who are hoping to win their second European Championship on German soil after Euro 88, their representation isn’t too shabby either. There’ll be a party atmosphere one way or another tonight.
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The historical head-to-head between these two countries doesn’t tell us much. The Netherlands have six wins to Turkey’s four, so it’s been pretty balanced over the long haul. The teams recently met during qualification for the 2022 World Cup, but that hardly splits them either: Burak Yılmaz was the hat-trick hero as Turkey won 4-2 in Istanbul, while Memphis Depay scored three as the Netherlands ran out 6-1 winners in Amsterdam. So good luck predicting which way tonight’s match will go with supreme confidence.
The Netherlands name an unchanged starting XI after their comfortable win over Romania. Turkey make three changes, and they’re all enforced: Orkun Kökçü, İsmail Yüksek and Merih Demiral are all suspended; Samet Akaydin, Salih Özcan and captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu take their places.
The teams
Netherlands: Verbruggen, Dumfries, de Vrij, van Dijk, Ake, Reijnders, Schouten, Bergwijn, Simons, Gakpo, Depay.
Subs: Geertruida, de Ligt, Wijnaldum, Weghorst, Bijlow, van de Ven, Veerman, Blind, Brobbey, Zirkzee, Flekken, Gravenberch, Frimpong, Malen.
Turkey: Gunok, Muldur, Akaydin, Bardakci, Kadioglu, Ayhan, Ozcan, Guler, Calhanoglu, Yildiz, Yilmaz.
Subs: Celik, Yokuslu, Akturkoglu, Tosun, Yazici, Bayindir, Kaplan, Kahveci, Cakir, Kilicsoy, Akgun, Yildirim.
Referee: Clement Turpin (France).
Preamble
There weren’t too many people making a case for the Netherlands at the start of this tournament; Turkey began the month as the darkest of dark horses. Hipsters’ choices at best. But now look at them. The Dutch sashayed gracefully into the last eight with a 3-0 defeat of Romania; Turkey stormed into the quarters with a thrilling high-octane victory over Austria. Both teams have brought goals and entertainment to the party, and a legitimate case can be made for both as possible winners of the whole darn thing. Which sets up this quarter-final deliciously. Here’s to it delivering. Kick-off is at 8pm BST. It’s on!
