Germany Beats Turkey in Euro 2008 Semifinal

Turkey’s passion for a surprise victory was strong, but it failed to beat experienced Germany.

The Germany-Turkey semifinal of Euro 2008 ended in Germany’s 3-2 come-from-behind victory.

Apart from the soccer match, the two countries share sensitive historical backgrounds. As former West Germany attracted many immigrant workers from Turkey during its economic development period, the number of Turks in Germany went up. However, there is a recent perception among Germans that Turks are stealing their jobs, which has strained the bilateral sentiments. Against this backdrop, some media described the soccer match as a “match of nationalism.”

For the game was held at the St. Jacob`s Park stadium in Basel, Switzerland, many predicted that Germany, ranked fifth on the FIFA rankings, would be at an advantage. However, Turkey, No. 20 on the rankings, dominated the first half, although many of its key members missed out the match because of injuries and accumulated warnings from previous matches.

About 22 minutes into the first half, Semih Senturk’s shooting hit the crossbar, which Ugur Boral led to the first goal of the match. But Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger also scored a goal four minutes later. Miroslav Klose scored another goal with his heading shoot 33 minutes into the second half, reversing the situation. However, Turkey’s Semih also scored a goal eight minutes later to tie with Germany.

It was Germany`s Philipp Lahm who concluded the victory. Exchanging passes with another German team player 45 minutes into the second half, he aggressively approached to the front of the net and scored the final goal of the match.

It is Germany’s fourth challenge for the European Championship, following its previous attempts in 1972, 1980 and 1996. Michael Ballack, leader of the German team, said, “The first half was not good, and we had hard times in the second half as well. But we achieved the victory with our spiritual power. We’re about to make a great achievement.”

Turkey’s Kazım Kazım said, “Our team now has an incredibly strong trust in each other.” Although it lost the match, Turkey is expecting to demonstrate strong performance in the final preliminary matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, scheduled to begin in September.

bluesky@donga.com