In the early morning of July 3, Beijing time, the 1/8 finals of the European Cup, Austria VS Turkey. Turkey, ranked 42nd in the world, defeated Austria 2-1 and reached the quarterfinals of the European Championship again after 16 years! Rangnick's Austria, although it was the first in the group, went home after the 1/8 finals.
In the group stage of the European Cup, Austria beat France and the Netherlands and advanced to the round of 16 as the first in Group D; Turkey finished second in Group F. In this game, Turkish captain Calhanoglu was suspended, coach Montella discharged a striker formation, and Real Madrid teenager Güller served as the pseudo-No. 9; On the Austrian side, Arnautovic played as a lone arrow.
Just 57 seconds into the opening period, Turkey broke the deadlock:
This is a corner kick for Turkey, the ball hits the penalty area, and in the chaos, Demiral scored with a left-footed shovel, and Turkey leads 1-0!
The 57-second blitz was the second fastest goal in this European Championship and the second fastest goal in the history of the European Championship, second only to Albania vs Italy in the opening 23 seconds.
In the first 10 minutes, the two sides fought against each other, and they thought it would be a wonderful battle, but Turkey, which led by one goal, immediately entered the defensive rhythm. Austria fell at the back, causing dissatisfaction among the fans, and the audience booed. The first half was a little dull: Turkey swung the bus, Austria fell to the back, and in 45 minutes, the two sides only had one shot on target in the opening 57 seconds.
After the rematch, Austria suddenly picked up the pace and launched a wave of onslaught, and there was a lot of noise in front of Turkey. However, Turkey have set-piece weapons. In the 59th minute, Turkey scored 1 more goal:
Güller took a corner kick, Demiral pressed 2 defenders, shook his head and scored the goal, Turkey 2-0!
In the 66th minute, Austria, which attacked fiercely, pulled one goal back:
Sabitzer crosses, Bosch header crosses, Gregorisch scrambles to score, Austria 1-2 sees hope!
After withstanding Austria's onslaught, Turkey held on to a 2-1 victory and reached the last 8 of the European Championship! In the quarterfinals, Turkey will play against the Netherlands.
Montella's team has become the number one dark horse in the European Championship - although Turkey finished third in the 2002 World Cup and reached the semi-finals of the 2008 European Championship, Turkish football has fallen into a trough in recent years: it has missed five consecutive World Cups, missed Euro 2012, and returned home after playing in the group stage of Euro 2016 and Euro 2020. After 16 years, Turkey once again reached the top 8 of the tournament.