It wasn’t the most entertaining game of the tournament but a thrilling finish will leave the quarter final clash between Turkey and Croatia lasting long in the memory. Turkey made it 4:2 (0:0, 1:1) in the penalty shoot-out to book their place in the semi-finals against Germany this coming Wednesday. Werder Bremen’s Ivan Klasnic must have thought he had decided the game in Croatia’s favour when he headed his side into a 1:0 lead in the 119th minute – but it wasn’t to be.
Klasnic was only introduced into the fray with seven minutes of extra time having already been played, in a game that his colleagues should have put beyond Turkey long before the ninety minutes were up. HSV’s Ivica Olic should have put Croatia in front after 19 minutes when he somehow managed to hit the crossbar from two meters out and both Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric were equally wasteful in front of goal. With six minutes to go, Darijo Srna had a powerful free-kick excellently turned away by Turkish keeper Rüstü and extra-time loomed.
With just a minute of the second period of extra-time to go, Klasnic stole in to head home a Modric delivery and send the Croatian fans into seventh heaven but, for the third game in a row, the Turkish team bounced back from the dead and with the game in the 122nd minute, Semih struck to draw his side back level. In the penalty shoot-out, Modric, Rakitic (both wide) and Petric (saved) failed from the spot and almost unbelievably, Turkey were in the semi-finals.
The semi-final clash between Germany and Turkey will take place on Wednesday, 25.06.2008 (kick-off 8:45pm) in Basel.