Index – Football – UEFA Euro 2024

The Olympic Stadium in Berlin was dressed in red. This was the red of the Turkish promoters. As expected, the Turkish football team welcomed their second European Cup semi-final in the atmosphere of the warm-up home stadium (the only time so far was in 2008, at the Swiss-Austrian Stadium). The Dutch team, which was considered by bookmakers to have a better chance than its opponents, received hurricane-like whistles, whether it was the goalkeeper, outfield players who came to warm up or the starting lineup that lined up after the national anthem.

As for the starting lineup, although there were some doubts about Turkey, Vincenzo Montella finally chose a five-back system against Austria, and Meri Demiral scored twice Together with its ban – Until then, Ronald Koeman’s team had little: he fielded the same 11 as against Romania.

But not only the predictions of the bookmakers, but also the ranking of the index do not bode well for Turkey. Our team finished last in the quarter-finals, while the Netherlands played particularly attractive and confident football against Romania and ended up in fifth place, which is not without subjective factors. In our compilation.

Imre Borbély, an analyst at xfb Analytics, told us this in the last Sportcast In the European Cup special edition, In general, we can expect the most open and interesting match in this quarter-final. Why? Because in the remaining matches, Turkey is the only team that failed to draw 0-0 and win by ten goals. This is also proved by their data: so far, they have allowed their opponents 14.75 shots per game, which is the most of the teams in the quarter-finals so far – the Netherlands, for example, only 10.25. Another revealing data is the average attack speed of both teams, after the already eliminated four teams of Czech Republic, Poland, Georgia and Hungary. The two defenders play the most direct football, advancing forward at a speed of about 1.9 meters per second while organizing the attack. – Indeed, the long balls mentioned are far less than four balls, using square hugging arcs.

There is hope to change the blade from the beginning

The first half went as expected, with Memphis Depay attempting a shot in the second minute but slipping on the move and missing the target. Shortly afterwards, Salih Özcan tried a through ball and Xavi Simons curled a shot from 22 metres out, between one and a half and two metres above the goal. After a quarter of an hour, the mood seemed to have calmed down, with the Netherlands having a slight advantage on the field, but they were unable to completely control the game. The Turks were particularly fierce on the counter-attack, with Arda Guler repeatedly getting into trouble with the central defender duo of Virgil van Dijk and Stefan de Vrij, who were both over 30 years old.

On the other hand, the Turkish defense worked well bit by bit, the chances of the Orange Shirts were exhausted in the middle of the first half, Xavi Simons even had obvious difficulties getting up to pass the ball, 24-27 just a few meters from Mert Günok’s goal. He proved well that this game was not to their taste, and in the 30th minute, Simons was allowed to stay on the field at the mercy of the referee because he stepped hard on Mert Mirdur’s ankle…

They fell asleep and committed a crime

Young Bart Verbruggen had to make a scary move, but in the grand scheme of things, it was no surprise that Turkey took the lead in the 35th minute. The 21-year-old goalkeeper hit the curling ball from Guler from the right. Samet Akaidin But he didn’t ask, instead he nodded to the left and down from three meters away as punishment. (0-1).

The Netherlands couldn’t escape the chaos that had set in during the game, with Koeman’s players often looking slow and clumsy in passing but lacking imagination in the final third, with the Turks easily intercepting their passes on several occasions and nearly counterattacking. Ultimately, Depay’s side ended the first half goalless, so it wasn’t just about the table, but it was clear which national team captain was happier with his side’s performance after 45 minutes…

With the equalizer the pressure monster

Unsurprisingly, Koeman decided to replace the completely weightless Steven Bergwijn in the first half. The second part of the game was already The former oppressive monster, Wout Weghorst was allowed to start on the pitch. The three-centimeter-tall striker didn’t even need seven minutes to be part of the most dangerous Dutch operation to date, but his run in Depay’s direction in slightly questionable circumstances was another matter – he was inches away from Depay before slotting the ball into the far post.

The “orange” light turned brighter, but the Turks did not lose their fighting spirit. In the 56th minute, Güler’s arcing shot from 24 meters was slightly to the left and hit the bottom of the right goal post. As the replay showed – although the referee did not award a corner kick – Verbruggen’s fingertips also caused the shot to not result in another goal. The 21-year-old goalkeeper made up for the mistake made by Arkadin before the goal.

De Vrij, the protagonist

In the 63rd minute, the Dutch made a great move down the left, but despite Simons’ cheeky pass back to Depay, Muldur was able to block the latter’s rolling ball. Two minutes later, Verbruggen’s goal was in danger again, with Kenan Yildiz’s rebound only pushed back by the goalkeeper, and De Vrij, lying on the ground, stretched out his left leg just enough to push the ball away from the goal. The upcoming Kane Ayhan.

With no other options, the Dutch were forced to take more and more risks in their quest for an equaliser, which in turn gave their opponents more and more space and opportunities to counter-attack. With 25 minutes to go, there was almost certain to be another goal, but it seemed impossible to guess which side would score. Weghorst headed in again, this time with Cody Gakpo’s scissor kick blocked. A few minutes later, the Burnley attacker was caught in the crossfire himself, but he held his head high after his shot – preferring to focus on the direction from which two teammates were coming from long range rather than blasting the ball short. Defender Gunnock.

But Weghorst’s decision was a good one anyway: the Netherlands equalised from a corner kick, with De Vrij heading home from six metres out from Depay’s roll. (1–1). At this point, our question about the second goal of the game was quickly answered… The Inter player had made a huge save in front of his own goal five minutes ago, so it’s no exaggeration to say that he made a huge save in a short period of time. He was also nominated for the Man of the Match award.

But if the latter is to have a realistic chance, the Netherlands still has an important task ahead of it.

Own goal leads to Turkey’s defeat

The Orange Army did this in a very short time. They were already ahead in the 76th minute. 2–1-Re! Simmons passed the ball to Denzel Dumfries on the right wing, who passed it from long range. cody steel co. The ball rolled in front of him, something he couldn’t take last night, but Muldur fouled him – so it would have been a penalty anyway – and the ball slid into the net. For a few minutes the Liverpool striker’s name was on the scoreboard, meaning his England club team-mate Dominik Szoboszlai was the only man to lead the scoring charts before the last three games, but the statisticians thought otherwise…

Suddenly, Turkey’s situation became more urgent. The Turks, driven by 60-70% of the crowd in Berlin, almost shouted a goal in the 85th minute, but Kerem Aktürkoglu’s ball was cut out of the goal by substitute Joey Veerman. In extra time, the Whites had another chance to equalize, but Verbruggen used excellent reflexes to save a close-range shot from Semih Kilisoy, who had not consciously aimed at the goal.

The Netherlands reached the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time in a decade since the 2014 World Cup. The last time he reached similar heights was at the 2004 European Championship, when he lost 2-1 to Portugal in the semi-finals.

This time, England will wait for the Netherlands in the semi-finals, while on the other side, France and Spain will compete for the final.

The stands were full of red clothes, and the Turkish team’s farewell moment had come in the middle of the quarterfinals.

UEFA Euro 2024, quarter-finals

Netherlands – Türkiye 2-1 (0-1)
Berlin, Olympic Stadium, 72,000 audience. Led by: Clement Turpin (France)
Hollandia: Verbruggen – Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Ake (Van der Ven, 73) – Schutten, Simmons (Zirkeze, 87), Reynders (Villman 73) – Bergwijn (Weghorst Sunetteben), Depay (Flinpon, 87.), Gapo. Alliance Captain: Ronald Coleman
Törökország: Günok – Müldür (Celiz, 82nd), Ayhan (Kilicsoy, 89th), Akaydin (Tosun, 82nd), Bardakci, Kadioglu – B. Yilmaz, Özcan (Yokuslu, 77th), Calhanoglu, Yildiz (Aktürkoglu, 77th) – smiled. Alliance Captain: Vincenzo Montella.
Scorer: De Vrij (70), Müldür – own goal (76), or Arkadin (35.)

In previous games

Semi-finals Schedule

• Tuesday, July 9, Munich: Spain – France 21.00
• Wednesday 10 July, Dortmund: England – Netherlands 21.00

(Cover photo: Mateusz Slodkowski/Getty Images Hungary)