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Late-goal specialists Turkey beat Croatia in shootout

20/06/2008

Turkey are through to the semi-finals of Euro 2008 after beating Croatia 3-1 on penalties in Vienna.

After both sides failed to break the deadlock in the 90 minutes, Croatia looked to have sealed victory when Ivan Klasnic scored in the 119th minute.

But Fatih Terim's side continued their reputation as the late-goal specialists when Semih scored with the last kick of the game.

Croatia imploded in the shootout with Tottenham's Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, and Mladen Petric all missing their spot-kicks.

Turkey will now clash with Germany in Wednesday's semi-final in Basle.

Turkey brought in ex-Barcelona goalkeeper Rustu Recber for the suspended Volkan with Gokhan Zan, Emre Asik and Sabri Sarioglu also starting, while Croatia played Ivica Olic as a lone striker with Portsmouth's Niko Kranjcar supporting.

Both sides seemed intent on attacking in the opening stages with Hamit Altintop flashing a shot wide while only a brilliant block by Hakan Balta denied Darjio Srna.

Slaven Bilic's side missed a golden chance to take the lead on 20 minutes when Tottenham's Luka Modric put in a ball across the face of goal with Olic side-footing against the crossbar while Kranjcar missing an open goal after heading over.

Fatih Terim's looked to punish that miss in the closing stages of the half with Mehmet Topal's screamer from 35 yards flying inches over while Tuncay felt he should have had a penalty when he was brought down by Josep Simunic but the referee waved played on.

Rustu could have cost Turkey a goal with some comical antics at the start of the second half with Olic heading the ball over the onrushing keeper before the ball was hacked clear. Ructu then flapped at a corner minutes later which Turkey managed to clear.

But the Besiktas shot-stopper redeemed himself with a fine save to keep out Kranjcar's strike from 18 yards.

The Group B winners exploited Turkey's reluctance to go forward in the second half by creating a string of chances. First, Ivan Rakitic traded passes with Olic before blazing over from 12 yards, while Rustu flung himself across goal to tip Srna's free-kick wide.

Rustu continued to foil the 1998 World Cup semi-finalists in the closing stages with a smart save to keep out another long-range free-kick while Olic shot straight at the keeper, to force extra time.

It was Turkey who were the aggressors in the first period of extra time with Semih firing over from 18 yards while Tuncay flashed a shot inches wide from the edge of the box.

A pulsating final six minutes began with an unmarked Zan headed over with the goal at his mercy.

Bilic's side thought they had snatched victory when Rustu chased a cross to the edge of his box with Modric crossing the ball over his head for Klasnic into head into the net.

But the Turks scored an equaliser a minute and 20 seconds over the scheduled time when Semih raced onto a knock-down and hammered the ball into the top-corner from 18 yards via a deflection.

That was the last kick of the game to force the dreaded penalty shootout. Modric and Rakitic failed to hit the target with their penalties while Rustu ended the night as the hero after saving Petric's spot-kick to seal Turkey's place in the semis.