A storm had been brewing all night and, right on full time, it erupted. Once it had cleared Turkey’s players bounced around in the centre circle, mimicked by the choirs encompassing them who somehow still had voices left. But first came the shower of bodies piling into each other near halfway, a brawl breaking out that gave the referee, Istvan Kovacs, plenty to do on top of what had already been an intimidating workload.
It took Vincenzo Montella to hotfoot across from the technical area and pull Arda Guler away as his prodigy, substituted earlier, piled into the fray.
Once the dust had settled Tomas Chory, the giant Czech Republic striker, had been shown a red card for his role in a fracas that appeared to start when Tomas Soucek took exception to Orkun Kokcu’s exuberant celebrations. While all that was happening a pitch invader sent security personnel sprinting from one side of the arena to another in the latest suggestion that, whoever ultimately claims responsibility, crowd control measures this month are simply not up to scratch.
For a few seconds it all resembled pixels flying across a screen and, for long periods, that was not an inaccurate description of the match itself. Turkey got the job done but this was a chaotic, patchy, increasingly tense affair that only felt comfortable when Cenk Tosun, who had replaced Guler in the 76th minute, broke away to blast the winner in added time. Turkey seem incapable of doing things the easy way and may struggle when they face the clean, robust, immaculately drilled style of Austria in a quintessential clash of dark horses next Tuesday.
“I was a little concerned because I didn’t know what was going on,” Montella said, referring to his dash to placate Guler. “We’d had a few yellow cards, and didn’t want any more bookings so that’s why I immediately went there.”
Saturday 29 June
Switzerland vs Italy (Berlin, 5pm, all times BST)
Germany vs Denmark (Dortmund, 8pm)
Sunday 30 June
England vs Slovakia (Gelsenkirchen, 5pm)
Spain vs Georgia (Cologne, 8pm)
Monday 1 July
France vs Belgium (Düsseldorf, 5pm)
Portugal vs Slovenia (Frankfurt, 8pm)
Tuesday 2 July
Romania vs Netherlands (Munich, 5pm)
Austria vs Türkiye (Leipzig, 8pm)
By the time everyone had taken their leave, Kovacs had shown 18 cards of different colours. One in particular turned the game.
Czech Republic, who could only go through with a win, had begun assertively and looked the better side until two exasperating moments from Antonin Barak. He was booked for an early foul on Ferdi Kadioglu and then, nine minutes later, he clipped Salih Ozcan’s foot with studs up. It looked more a follow‑through than a malicious action and perhaps, given not even a quarter of the game had run, Barak could have been given one last chance. He held head in hands when the punishment was confirmed, trudging down the tunnel with the face of a man who knew the potential cost.
In the end his team paid it. “I must say it’s a failure, we’re going home, we’re sad because this team was capable of advancing,” said Ivan Hasek, the Czech Republic manager. They had almost scored after two minutes when Lukas Provod’s deflected strike drew a full-stretch save from Mert Gunok and then, with 10 men, held out in relative comfort before half‑time. Gunok rescued Turkey again when David Jurasek broke through and there was a sense that chance needed to be taken.
That was borne out after a rapid re‑emergence by Turkey, who were screamed on by three-quarters of the crowd. Jindrich Stanek seemed to have saved his side with a brilliant one-handed stop Kenan Yildiz but the rebound was only cleared to the edge of the box and worked left to Hakan Calhanoglu. The captain cut across the ball with the outside of his foot and laced a sumptuously clean, technically masterful finish across the keeper. Stanek had clearly hurt himself in making the initial intervention and had to be substituted in clear discomfort, perhaps with a dislocated shoulder.
“An extraordinary goal, there are few players who can take a shot like he does,” Montella said. Nobody can argue with that; his gripe was that, after being booked for apparent dissent, Calhanoglu will be ruled out of the Austria game. Montella was unhappy that, given the Uefa rules allowing captains to engage in dialogue with officials, his talisman had been censured.
The bigger concern may be how Turkey lost their heads after that, being pegged back by a blast from Tomas Soucek after the recently introduced Chory had caused Gunok to drop a high ball. Tension radiated from all corners; Jan Kuchta had a goal ruled out for the Czechs but Tosun offered some form of calm before the late scrap. “They deserve this qualification,” Montella said, but Turkey will have to sharpen up.
