VIDEO. Euro 2024: coming too far, Austria loses to Turkey which qualifies for the quarter-finals

Demiral a inscrit un doublé. MAXPPP – ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Turkey qualified for the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 by surprising Austria (2-1), Tuesday July 2 in Leipzig. Starting too far after being down 2-0, the Austrians pushed at the end of the match, in vain, while the Turks will face the Netherlands in the quarters.

Turkey's Italian coach Vincenzo Montella assured that his players would not play with the desire for "revenge" pegged to the body after the 6-1 beating received from Austria in a friendly in March. And yet, they played with extra spirit on Tuesday to surprise one of the most attractive teams at the start of the tournament, who finished first ahead of France in Group D.

It was a story of corners in a very intense match with a lot of duels in the middle and two teams running from one end of the field to the other without counting. Austria took a blow to the head in the first minute: Baris Yilmaz managed to get a corner and Arda Güler, the 19-year-old nugget from Real Madrid, was responsible for shooting it very close to the goal.

The Austrian defense messed up when trying to clear and the ball failed on Merih Demiral. The defender torpedoed it from point blank range into the net, and the Turkish supporters let out their first smoke bomb of the evening for one of the quickest goals in a Euro (57 seconds ). For Austria, who had won 14 of their last 19 matches, and wanted to reach their first quarter-finals in a Euro, the situation was unusual.

🚨 La Turquie ouvre le score au bout de 55 secondes !
⚡ Un but GAG signé Demiral !#Action #beINEuro2024 pic.twitter.com/Zb770Cg0kU

— beIN SPORTS (@beinsports_FR) July 2, 2024

Doubled for Demiral

Ralf Rangnick's men threw themselves headlong into the battle to equalize as quickly as possible. Moreover, they could have achieved it a few moments later, on a very similar corner, but the ball flew over the goal line, taunting Christoph Baumgartner. But the Austrians did not manage to create other big chances, because of the very attentive and fired-up Turks.

After half-time, the Austrians increased the pressure, this time winning the majority of duels. They created chances that were much more dangerous than in the first act, notably a duel between Marko Arnautovic and goalkeeper Mert Günok (51st) and a dribble from Laimer followed by a too-soft shot (53rd). .

And then the Turks took the Austrians from behind a second time. On a corner there too, hit by an Arda Güler who was decidedly very inspired in this exercise, and who placed it on the head of Merih Demiral (59th)… You don't change a winning formula.

Günok saves his people

The Austrians had the merit of reducing the score very quickly… again from a corner. Having entered the game a few moments earlier, Michael Gregoritsch did not hesitate to send the ball to the right place (66th), remembering the good memories of the Turks on whom he had scored a hat-trick during the famous friendly match in March.

The tension among the Turkish supporters, who began to hold their heads in their hands a lot, increased a notch. Austria pushed and pushed, but was clumsy, and the Turkish defense was heroic.

In particular goalkeeper Mert Günok who repelled a point-blank header from Baumgartner at the last minute, a gesture of immense class worthy of "stopping the century" made by the Englishman Gordon Banks on a Pelé header at the 1970 World Cup.

[⚽️ VIDÉO] 🏆 #EURO2024 #AUTTUR
🤯 C'est L'ARRÊT DE L'ANNÉE !!!
🇹🇷 Mert Günok sauve la Turquie à la DERNIÈRE MINUTE ! pic.twitter.com/81e3o4Hccv

— beIN SPORTS (@beinsports_FR) July 2, 2024