Portugal vs Turkey
in Geneva.
Saturday, 7th June at 20.45
Portugal and Turkey played the second game on the
opening day of Euro 2008.
After a niggling start, Portugal thought Pepe's 17th minute header had
put them in front. Unfortunately, the linesman spotted the player briefly offside as the
ball was struck. A difficult one to see, but correctly judged and no real complaints from
the Portuguese players.
The only other highlight of a frustrating first-half was when Ronaldo
prepared himself for a thunderous free-kick, then turned away in disbelief after the ball
flew past the wall and was slightly tipped onto the post, by Volkan Demirel.
Half-time - 0:0
Straight after the re-start, Portugal hit the post for a second time -
while Simão and Gokhan Zan lay on the ground; after a reckless challenge that saw Gokhan
Zan become the second Turkish player to enter the referee's book. Gokhan Zan came off
worse in the challenge and couldn't continue.
With an hour gone, Pepe's run through the middle, and a quick
one-two, was just what was needed to put the pushing and shoving out of memory. No offside
flag this time either.
Then Nuno Gomes headed onto the crossbar; to make it three times that
Portugal hit the woodwork.
Although the game only produced the solitary goal in ninety
minutes, Portugal showed a lot of attacking potential with plenty of options.
Then just to prove the point, Simão's late replacement - Raul
Meireles - finished off a blistering Portugal move in the final seconds of injury-time to
make the scoreline look more respectable.
Final Score:
Portugal 2 - Turkey 0
Goalscorers:
1:0 Pepe (61)
2:0 Raul Meireles (93)
Teams
Portugal:
1 Ricardo; 4 Bosingwa,16 Ricardo Carvalho, 15 Pepe; 8 Petit, 20 Deco, 11 Simão, 7
Cristiano Ronaldo, 10 João Moutinho; 21 Nuno Gomes.
Turkey:
23 Volkan Demirel; 2 Servet Cetin, 4 Gokhan Zan, 3 Hakan Kadir Balta; 7 Mehmet Aurelio, 22
Hamit Altintop, 5 Belozoglu Emre, 17 Tuncay Sanli; 8 Nihat Kahveci, 18 Colin
Kazim-Richards, 21 Mevlüt Erdinç.
Referee:
Herbert Fandel (Germany)
Substitutions:
46 Mins (Turkey) - 20 Sabri Sarioglu on for 21 Mevlüt Erdinç
55 Mins (Turkey) - 15 Emre Asik on for 4 Gokhan Zan
68 Mins (Portugal) - 19 Nani on for 21 Nuno Gomes
76 Mins (Turkey) - 9 Semih Sentürk on for 22 Hamit Altintop
82 Mins (Portugal) - 6 Raul Meireles on for 11 Simão
92 Mins (Portugal) - 5 Fernando Meira on for 20 Deco
 3 Yellow Cards:
4 Mins - Colin Kazim-Richards (Turkey)
50 Mins - Gokhan Zan (Turkey)
73 Mins - Sabri Sarioglu (Turkey)
Switzerland vs Czech Republic
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