Euro 2024: Turkiye Claim Hard-Fought Victory Against 10-Man Czechia, Progress To Last 16

 

Turkiye have qualified for the Last 16 of the UEFA Euro 2024, and did narrowly, coming out as winners in the stoppages to claim a hard-fought 2-1 victory against 10-man Czechia in their last group game. 

Czechia's Antonin Barak was red carded in the 20th minute and after halftime Turkiye moved ahead. Hakan Calhanoglu dashed into the box from the left flank and smacked a right-footed shot home from inside the box and put the side ahead. 

Tomas Soucek seized a rowdy moment involving goalkeeper Mert Gunok in the Turkiye box and restored Czechia back into the game, blasting into the net Robin Hranac's pass to level the scores. Turkiye later won the game as Cenk Tosun dribbled his way into the Czechia's box, dumb a defender and smashed the ball down bottom right of the goal. 

After the full whistle, fight quickly broke between the two teams and Czechia's Tomas Chory was issued a red card and two Turkiye players were issued the warning card. Turkiye finished in second place behind Group F leader, Portugal. 

Overview

Czechia performed incredibly well despite playing one man down against Turkiye. Initially, they seemed to be counting on counter but switched approach to offensive and considerably controlled the game for much of the latter part. Eventually, they lost. 

Meanwhile, for Turkiye, they desperately needed to win but could not upset that winning goal to settle the game. The build up to both goals fofrom Turkiye came from the left flank and both were from individual efforts. Attack-wise, they were unrelenting even as the Czechia side build up strong offensive in search of an equalizer.