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The Czech Republic vs. Turkey kicked off with both teams needing to win in order to give themselves a chance to progress.
An opening goal from Burak Yilmaz, followed by a rocket from Ozan Tufan gave Turkey a 2-0 victory, knocking the Czechs out of the competition.
Despite the win, it may not be enough for Turkey to progress, as they sit third with three points and a goal differential of negative two.
With the Turkish victory, the Czech Republic have been eliminated. Photo: @HTSportsNews | Twitter
From the opening whistle, both teams seemed to understand the importance of a win and went straight at each other. Burak Yilmaz opened the scoring with a lovely finessed finish in the 10th minute after some lovely work down the flank by new Borussia Dortmund signing Emre Mor.
The teenager would continue to cause the Czech Republic problems throughout the half as Turkey looked the more dangerous team, but the Czechs carried a threat of their own against a shaky Turkish defense. Once again though, the lack of a prolific goalscorer proved to be the Czech's downfall, as they couldn't make their opportunities count for anything.
Tomas Sivok hit the post on a corner, and Jaroslav Plasil forced a good save from his long-distance shot, but that was about all they could muster in the first 45 minutes. Other than the goal, Turkey didn't really have any clear-cut opportunities, but both teams looked quite dangerous in a wide open match that was a nice change of pace from the conservative nature of some of the other Euro matches.
The second half didn't disappoint as both teams charged at each other. Turkey knew it needed to win big in order to have any chance of progressing, while the Czechs knew a win would almost guarantee them a passage through.
A brilliant run by Emre Mor got Turkish fans off their feet, but his shot went flying just over the bar. The Czechs had a couple chances of their own, but they were easy saves for Turkish goalkeeper Volkan Babacan.
In the 65th minute, Turkey all but wrapped it up as a freekick dropped to the feet of Ozan Tufan, who absolutely blasted it into the corner of the net. There was a slight suspicion of offside on the knockdown header, but it wasn't spotted by the officials. The Turkish fans went nuts, throwing a number of flares on the pitch as Babacan pleaded with them to stop. It was an unfortunate event, and it will surely result in fines being handed down to the Turkish.
Despite being 2-0 up, Turkey knew they needed to bag at least four goals to give them a better chance of progressing, so they continued to drive forward, although not with great success. The Czech Republic just looked completely out of ideas, and there was never any real chance of them getting back in this game.
The result sees the Czech Republic take their leave of Euro 2016, while Turkey will have to wait to see if they did enough to go through. They did leap above Albania in the list of best third-placed teams, but they will need other results to go their way in the next few days to guarantee them a spot.
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