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First Round

• Sun. 11th June: (Group B)
  Game 02 Turkey - Italy
  Gelredome, Arnhem (14:30)

The second match in Euro 2000, sees Turkey drawn against Italy. The Turkish people are feeling buoyant after Galatasary beat Arsenal in the UEFA Cup Final, on penalties, and will be waving the half crescent in Istanbul again; if the national side can overcome the Azzurri.

Turkish national coach, Mustafa Denizli, made good use of the Galatasary triumph in Copenhagen; proclaiming it a victory for the four corners of the country. Of course that's taking it a touch far but it has given the Turkish players a confidence boost; many of whom play for Galatasary. The national team, on the other hand, have had very little match practice lately -- or at least publicly.

As Turkey seemed happy with a goaless draw in Munich, in their last qualification match, they may well find a draw with Italy just as acceptable; although Hakan Sükur will be sure to trouble the Italian defence. The Turks failed to even get a point during the group phase of Euro96, in England.

Italy, under Dino Zoff, have had results far from satisfactory for the Italian media and need to shut out the words from Gazzetta dello Sport's poison pens. The Italians always seem to come good in major tournaments, or at least good enough to stiffle the enthusiasm of other pretenders and hold the game long enough to grind out the results needed to stay in the competition longer than most.

No Italian clubs made it to the European Finals at club level, so maybe confidence in the camp is not as high as it should be. Dino Zoff's job will be to make his team start believing, on Pentecost Sunday.

Turkey Team:
1-Rustu Recber
2-Tayfur Havutcu, 3-Ogun Temizkanoglu, 4-Fatih Akyel, 5-Fehmi Alpay Ozalan
7-Okan Buruk, 9-Hakan Sukur, 10-Ali Riza Sergen Yalcin, 11-Tayfun Korkut
19-Abdullah Ercan, 22-Umit Davala.

Italy Team:
12-Francesco Toldo
3-Paolo Maldini, 4-Demetri Albertini, 5-Fabio Cannavaro
8-Antonio Conte, 9-Filippo Inzaghi, 11-Gianluca Pessotto, 13-Alessandro Nesta
17-Gianluca Zambrotta, 18-Stefano Fiore, 20-Francesco Totti.

Referee: Hugh Dallas (Scotland).

First Half:
Italy opened the game strongly, forcing six corners in the first 15 minutes. They should have spent more time training for these pieces.

The first real Turkish attack, on the quarter-hour, passed narrowly wide for Sergen and a chorus of Tur-Ki-Ye from the Turkish fans seemed to lift their players back into the game.

The Turks put the Italians under more pressure while Italy seemed short on ideas. Technically, both teams gave away far too much of the ball in the middle of the field. The most stable player in the first half being Alpay, who continually foiled Inzaghi.

Italy's idea to grab an early goal and close down the game, didn't go to plan and Turkey looked stronger once Italy lost the initiative. 0-0.

Second Half:
0-1. Goal to Italy. Conte overhead kick, after Inzaghi's shot from the side is only partly cleared -- 52mins.

1-1. A wonderful equaliser from Turkey as Okan rises to head down a free-kick from the right, cleanly past Francesco Toldo -- 61mins.

1-2. Inzaghi against Ogun Temizkaoglu on a run in the Turkish goal area. The Italian gets nudged to the floor and is awarded a penalty; converted after protests from the Turkish players and Recber is finished with clearing his goalmouth of debris -- 70mins.

Result: Turkey 1 -- Italy 2
In the final minutes of play, Italy looked relaxed enough to extend their lead, while the Turks never realistically believed they could penetrate the Italian defence for an equaliser. Di Livio had a last minute goal disallowed for offside.

Man of the Match: Inzaghi.

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Sat. 10th June: (Group B)
Game 01 Belgium - Sweden (2-1)

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