Late Penalty saves Trabzonspor and the first place in the Group B

(Photo by AP)
Lille's Eden Hazard (R) challenges Ondrej Celustka of Trabzonspor during their Champions League Group B soccer match at Huseyin Avni Aker stadium in Trabzon,Turkey.

Gustavo Colman's late penalty kept Trabzonspor's lead at the top of UEFA Champions League Group B.

Moussa Sow had given French champions Lille, a 31st-minute lead, but Colman's 75th-minute spot-kick ensured parity and a 1-1 result.


This was the first ever Champions League match played in the city of Trabzon,Turkey!

Trabzonspor was invited to the tournament after Fenerbahce was pulled from the tournament.

Lille looked was better side and were scorers before the first half.

After Eden Hazard had tried his luck in the 29th minute, they took the lead with their first shot on goal. David Rozehnal's ball was not cut out by Marek Cech and Sow was able to net from a tight angle, through the legs of goalkeeper Tolga Zengin.


It was nearly 2-0 four minutes later when Hazard squared for Sow - but the Senegalese international was unable to make contact, to the relief of the home side.

The first half finished on a sad note when Marek Cech was carried off on a stretcher following a reckless challenge by Lille midfielder Joe Cole, who was booked for his efforts. Marek Cech returned for the second half and Trabzonspor who threatened first with Serkan Balci shooting high and wide twice in as many minutes.

Soon after Sow came close to a second goal for the visitors, out-muscling defender Giray Kacar but shooting just wide of the far post.

An open start to the second half continued when Colman saw a shot from the edge of the penalty area saved low down by Mickael Landreau. At the other end, Cole should have done better than fire at Zengin when unmarked seven yards from goal in the 54th minute.

Adrian saw a left-foot shot deflected wide in the 71st for a corner which came to nothing, as the hosts sought an equaliser. And they got it in the 75th minute, after Mathieu Debuchy handled Paulo Henrique's cross inside the penalty area. Landreau got a hand to the resulting penalty kick and Trabzonspor scored the penalty kick and had their point.

Trabzonspor coach SENOL GUNES.....


After the match, Trabzonspor coach Senol Gunes could not say whether he was "happy or upset" after his side clinched a 1-1 draw against Lille to move to the top of Group B.

He went on to say, "Despite the poor pitch conditions, we pressed them up front and chased for an equaliser. The result is not that bad and I congratulated my players.

One drawback for us was the lack of creativity. We are top of the group now and we have two consecutive matches against CSKA Moskva. Four points from those two games would give us a very big advantage as Inter are playing against Lille."

Group B
1 Trabzonspor 2 4
2 Internazional 2 3
3 Lille 2 2
4 CSKA Moskva 2 1

GOOD WEEK FOR TRABZONSPOR AND BESIKTAS IN EUROPE..

TRABZONSPOR KEEPER.... TOLGA ZENGIN

First Trabzonspor in Italy than, Besiktas at home in Istanbul gave something to simile to Turkish football fans after Turkish football rocked with negative news about Turkish football...

They shocked the world and beat Inter in Italy 0-1.....

Great volley by Halil Altintop hit the upper crossbar and came back to out side of the box and there it was Czech defender Ondrej Celustka, took the ball and went around the Inter defense and scored the goal...

Inter Milan and fans watching the match were stunned!

Trabzonspor faced Inter 28 years ago back at home....

At that time , Current coach Senol Gunes , than he was the keeper for Trabzonspor.

But at this match, because of suspension by UEFA ,he had to watch the match from stands not from sideline!

He said, he was very sorry he was not on the sidelined with his team,,,

Before the match,Senol Gunes said "I played for Trabzonspor 28 years ago against Inter and I'm very lucky to find myself here again as coach, I hope it will be a great game," said the man who led Turkey to the World Cup semi-finals in 2002.

"It's a great memory for me, I'm happy that we could meet again after so many years.

"We won at home but although we didn't play here in Milan we lost the away leg.

"It was many years ago but I still have great memories and I hope there will be other opportunities to see each other in the future."


Trabzonspor goal keeper Tolga Zengin was the "player of the match" with very critical saves he made.

Tolga Zengin was huge in this match,.....

I think, he was the main reason that Trabzonspor won this match!

Last time Turkish keeper made a name for him self was Sabri Dino....

Italian fans will remember him from 1973 when he played there, against Italian National team with Turkish National team..Sabri Dino played for Besiktas in Turkey...

So, with this win Trabzonspor grabs the first place in the group...

That is hell of a good start for a team who is there for first time!


******************************************************************


ON the other hand Besiktas the team who is in Europa League beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 5-1 at home in their first match in the group.

Although Besiktas scored a lot of goals, I hope this should not give high hopes to Besiktas fans!

Because, the football that I saw wasn't that good....

Besiktas will not find a defense like Maccabi Tel Aviv's defense in the Turkish League..

After struggling in Eskisehir last weekend against Eskisehirspor and starting to Turkish Super League with a loss this could be big morale for players and fans but football wise is not enough!

Lastly, new transfer's Edu's goal should tell you what kind of defense that Besiktas was playing against!

It was really bad......

Anyway, Besiktas won the match with big score....

Only thing I did not like in this match, was fans in the stadium using absurd language to Israel and Fenerbahce's jailed CEO, Aziz Yildirim...

There was no place for this, I condemn the Besiktas players for this...

There should be no swearing in the stands, in my opinion...

And lastly , politics and football does not go hand and hand!

Turkish Super League 2011- 2012 season takes a start on Saturday..

The day has come ladies and Gentleman!

After all struggles,crises and broken promises,Turkish Spor Toto Super League will finally get going, this weekend, starting this Saturday.

First, TFF officials said the league was suppose to start on August 5th!

But that did not happened because of the scandal in Turkish Football!

They had to eat their promise words and moved the opening date to Sept 9th,2011...

So the day has come and Turkish football fans will watch Turkish football starting this weekend again!

This season TFF will try new system in the league...

Play-off and play-out system!

TFF said, they are trying this system this season if they like it they will keep it!

With this new system, regular season will play and than top four teams will fight in the play-off system.


Despite the Turkish football scandal Turkish football teams spend over 100 million in the transfer market.

Fenerbahce after they found that they weren't going to Champions League ,they off-load lot of players.

On th other hand, the team who will represent Turkey in the Champions League was shock to see them selfs in the CL!

Before that news, Trabzonspor , sold few of their good players to teams like Besiktas and Gaalatasaray,

If they knew, they were going to play in the Champions League directly, I don't think they would sold their star players..


Anyway, a lot teams, transfer a lot of good players....

Galatasaray made some flash transfers too...

But, I don't think in the last days of the transfer market Fatih Terim was happy happy

Because a lot of the names that he wanted , did not come to Galatasaray or they could not get it because of money issue!


There will be four matches on the opening day. Sunday there is also four matches , and the closing match for week one in the Turkish Super League will be on Monday with Fenerbahce hosting league's new team Orduspor.

Sadly to say..there won't be spectators in this match again because of TFF's stupid rule of punishment decision!


The suspension or punishment with "no spectators" rule has to change in the Turkish Super League.

Looking at first week matches on Saturday, Besiktas will be away in Eskisehir ,Besiktas looks favorite in this match but Eskisehir with their new coach Sikibe could surprise Besiktas.


Trabzonspor will be in Manisa to play Manisaspor in the last match on Saturday. Trabzonspor looks like they could win this match.

Also on Saturday,newcomers Samsunspor and Mersin İdmanyurdu are also in action for the first time, Samsunspor will be at home against Genclerbirligi and Mersin I, will tarvel to Ankara to play Ankaragucu.

The team who is almost sold all of their players Anakaragucu , will have a though time against Mersin. I think Mersin could win this match in Ankara.

Samsun vs Genclerbirligi match could end-up with draw....

On Sunday,in the early matches...Karabukspor will host Sivasspor and Bursaspor will be home against Kayserispor. I pick Sivasspor and Bursaspor to win....

In the late Sunday matches,Antalyaspor will be home against Gaziantep and Galatasaray will face Istanbul Buyuksehir at Ataturk Olympic stadium .

Gaziantep looks better side for me and Galatasaray will have no problem beating Istanbul Buyuksehir in my opinion...

The week one will come to end with Fenerbahce- Orduspor match on Monday.

Fenerbahce should win this match, despite all the negative news about Fenerbahce....

So, we are in for long season after the regular season there will be play-off time in the Turkish Super League. The winer of the play-off's will be the champions of Turkey this coming season.

The regular 34 games season will only will bring out the teams who will be in the play-offs and the last three teams to say good-bye to the league...

Here is my top four picks to be, at the end of Turkish Super league regular season....

Galatasaray,Besiktas,Fenerbahce,Trabzonspor......

See you next time....


Here are the teams transfers.........



Fenerbahce

Arrivals: Henri Bienvenu (Young Boys), Joseph Yobo (Everton), Emmanuel Emenike (Karabükspor), Reto Ziegler (Sampdoria), Orhan Şam (Gençlerbirliği), Serdar Kesimal (Kayserispor), Sezer Öztürk (Eskişehirspor), Emre Özkaya (Nazilli Belediyespor)

Departures: Ertuğrul Taşkıran (Samsunspor), Okan Alkan (Kayserispor), İlhan Eker (Kayserispor), Gökhan Ünal (Kayserispor), Abdülkadir Kayalı (Eskişehirspor), Volkan Babacan (Manisaspor on loan), Emmanuel Emenike (Spartak Moscow), Diego Lugano (Paris Saint Germain), Daniel Güiza (Getafe), Andre Santos (Arsenal), Mamadou Niang (Al Sadd).



Trabzonspor

Arrivals: Didier Zokora (Sevilla), Sercan Kaya (Bucaspor), Eren Albayrak (Bursaspor), Sercan Kaya (Bucaspor), Barış Özbek (Galatasaray), Paulo Henrique (Westerloo), Adrian Mierzejewski (Polonia Warszawa), Aykut Akgün (Karşıyaka), Halil Altıntop (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ondrej Celustka (Slavia Prague), Sefa Akın Başıbüyük (Çorumspor), Volkan Şen (Bursaspor).

Departures: Egemen Korkmaz(Beşiktaş), Yattara (Al Shabab), Selçuk İnan (Galatasaray), Jaja (Al Ahli), Ceyhun Gülselam (Galatasaray), Umut Bulut (Toulouse), Drago Gabric, Engin Baytar (Galatasaray).


Galatasaray

Arrivals: Fatih Terim(coach), Johan Elmander (Bolton), Selçuk İnan (Trabzonspor), Ceyhun Gülselam (Trabzonspor), Tomas Ujfalusi (Atletico Madrid), Felipe Melo (Juventus, on loan), goalkeeper Fernando Muslera

(Lazio), Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal), Okan Derici (E. Frankfurt), Engin Baytar (Trabzonspor).

Departures: Goalkeeper Robinson Zapata (Deportivo Pereira), Lucas Neill (Al Jazeera), Harry Kewell (Melbourne Victory), Barış Özbek (Trabzonspor), Emiliano Insua (Liverpool), Cem Sultan (Kayserispor), Lorik Cana (Lazio), Emmanuel Culio (Orduspor, on loan), Arda Turan (Atletico Madrid), Mehmet Batdal (Karabükspor, on loan), Bogdan Stancu (Orduspor, on loan), Juan Pablo Pino (Nassr Saudi FC, on loan), Musa Çağıran (Bursaspor).

Besiktas

Arrivals: Egemen Korkmaz (Trabzonspor), Mustafa Pektemek (Gençlerbirliği), Burak Kaplan (Bayer Leverkusen), Veli Kavlak (Rapid Wien), Tanju Kayhan (Rapid Wien), Sidnei (Benfica, on loan), Mehmet Akyüz (Tavşanlı Linyitspor), Ersan Gülüm (Adanaspor), Manuel Fernandes (Valencia), Bebe (Man United, on loan).

Departures: Erhan Güven (Mersin İdmanyurdu), goalkeeper Hakan Arıkan (Mersin İdmanyurdu,), Bobo (Cruzeiro), Matteo Ferrari, Nihat Kahveci, Mert Nobre (Mersin İdmanyurdu), Rıdvan Şimşek (Karabükspor, on loan).

Bursaspor

Arrivals: Stanislav Sestak (Ankaragücü), Michael Chretien (Nancy), Prince Tagoe (Hoffenheim), Cemal Kaldırım (SG Bad Breisig), Bedrican Özdoğan (Adıyamanspor), Scott Carson (W.Bromwich), N’Diaye (Nancy), Tunay Acar (SV Darmstadt 98), Barış Örücü (MSW Duisburg), Deniz Arslan (Ajax), İbrahim Kaş (Getafe), Teteh Bangura (AIK Stockholm), Adem Koçak (Ankaragücü), Musa Çağıran (Galatasaray).

Departures: Cemal Kaldırım (Adanaspor on loan), Kenny Miller (Cardiff City), Yenal Tuncer (Samsunspor), Mustafa Keçeli (Mersin İdman Yurdu), Dimitar Ivankov (Anorthosis Famagusta), Ivan Ergiç, Ali Tandoğan (Antalyaspor), Hüseyin Çimşir, Eren Albayrak (Trabzonspor), Bekir Ozan Has (Gaziantepspor), İbrahim Kaş (Mersin İdman Yurdu), Volkan Şen (Trabzonspor), Sercan Yıldırım (Galatasaray).

Gaziantepspor

Arrivals: Yasin Pehlivan (Rapid Wien), Taşkın Çalış (B. Moenchengladbach), Hürriyet Güçer (Ankaragücü), Bekir Ozan (Bursaspor), Arafat Djako (Anzhi), Gilles Binya (Neuchâtel Xamax)

Departures: Cristian Zurita (Mersin İdmanyurdu), Jorginho, Beto, Souza, Gökhan Öztürk (Çaykur Rizespor), İbrahim Ferdi Coşkun (Mersin İdman Yurdu), Yalçın Ayhan (Orduspor)

Kayserispor

Arrivals: Nicolas Navarro (Argentinos Jr.), İlhan Eker (Fenerbahçe), Engin Bekdemir (Porto), Gökhan Ünal (Fenerbahçe), Cem Sultan (Galatasaray), Sefa Yılmaz (Duisburg), Zurab Khizanishvili (Reading), Ömer Alp Kulga (Maastricht), Okay Yokuşlu (Altay), Nadir Çiftçi (Portsmouth).

Departures: Goalkeeper Souleymanou, Önder Turacı, Ali Bilgin, Mehmet Eren (Antalyaspor), Serdar Kesimal (Fenerbahçe), Andre Moritz (Mersin İdman Yurdu), Önder Turacı (Mersin İdman Yurdu), Selim Teber (Samsunspor), Armağan Kuş (Samsunspor), Hamza Çakır (Karabükspor)

Karabukspor

Arrivals: Sinan Kaloğlu (Vitesse), Volkan Dikmen (Hertha Berlin), Orkun Uşak (Konyaspor), Ahmet Cebe (Denizlispor), Erdem Özgenç (Boluspor), Erkan Taşkıran (Bucaspor), Danilo Nikoliç (OFK Belgrad), Bilal Kısa (Karşıyaka), Güven Güner (İnegölspor), Luton Shelton (Valerenga), Hamza Çakır (Kayserispor), Rıdvan Şimşek (Beşiktaş, on loan), Mehmet Batdal (Galatasaray, on loan).

Departures: Emmanuel Emenike (Fenerbahçe), Yasin Avcı, Bülent Bal (Göztepe), Bülent Ataman, Ferdi Elmas (Karşıyaka), Kerim Zengin (Sivasspor), Engin Aktürk (Çaykur Rizespor), Aydın Karabulut (Göztepe), Hakan Özmert (Orduspor).


Mersin İdmanyurdu

Arrivals: Mustafa Keçeli (Bursaspor), Yannick Kamanan (Sivasspor), Erhan Güven (Beşiktaş) Cristian Zurita (Gaziantepspor), Hakan Arıkan (Beşiktaş), Wissem Ben Yahia (Club Africain Tunis), İbrahim Sehic (Zeljeznicar), Andre Moritz (Kayserispor), Mert Nobre (Beşiktaş), Önder Turacı (Kayserispor), İbrahim Ferdi Coşkun (Gaziantepspor), İbrahim Kaş (Bursaspor).

Departures: Kerem İnan, Eser Altın, Veysel Kılıç (Güngören Belediyespor), Ernani Pereira, Fatih Egedik, Hüseyin Yoğurtçu (Adanaspor), Erdal Güneş, Burak Karaduman, Şehmuz Özer (Akhisar Belediyespor), Faruk Bayar, Eren Şen, Tuna Kaya (Güngören Belediyespor), Kıvanç Dağ (Bucaspor), Adem Büyük (Manisaspor), Tonia Tisdell (Ankaragücü), Önder Turacı (Bursaspor.

Orduspor

Arrivals: Saso Fornenzzi (FC Wiener), Youla (Denizlispor), Miguel Garcia (Braga), Sergio Zijler (Rijeka), Daniel Georgiev (Cherno More), Volkan Altın (Antalyaspor), Sinan Osmanoğlu (Galatasaray A2), Jean Jacques Gosso (Monaco), Emmanuel Banahene Osei (Berekum Chelsea), Wilfried Dalmat (Club Brugge), Onur Tuncer (Bucaspor) Yalçın Ayhan (Gaziantepspor), Hakan Özmert (Karabükspor), Tobias Nickenig (Osnabrück), Abdurrahman Dereli (Sivasspor), Sedat Bayrak (Sivasspor), Murat Kalkan (Gençlerbilriği), Emmanuel Culio (Galatasaray, on loan), Bogdan Stancu (Galatasaray, on loan).

Departures: Jerry Akaminko (Manisaspor), Abdullah Çetin, Ahmet Kuru, Mehmet Ayaz (Kartalspor), Bilal Türkgüler, Muarrem, Kostovski, Ahmet Güven, Emrullah Kokoç, Jovan Kostovski, Volkan Altın, Sinan Osmanoğlu, Suleymanou Youla, Daniel Georgiev

Samsunspor

Arrivals: Vladimir Petkovic (coach, Young Boys), Burak Çalık (Altay), Pal Lazar (Videoton), Selim Teber (Kayserispor), Armağan Kuş (Kaysersipor), Serdar Gürler (Sochaux), Andre Luiz Bahia (Feyenoord), Hakan Arslan (Güngören Belediyespor), Valdomiro Duarte de Macedo (Vitoria Setubal), Ekigho Ehiosun (Warri Wolves F.C.), Atilla Özmen (Bucaspor), Alvaro Jose Dominguez Cabezas (Sion).

Departures: Hüseyin Kalpar (coach Çaykur Rizespor), Abdülaziz Solmaz (Eskişehirspor), Akeem Oriyomi Agbetu (Karşıyaka), Oğuz Üstünel, Can Özgür, Alparslan Kartal, Serkan Boydak, Emrullah Şalk, Musa Büyük, Mustafa Gürel (Kartalspor).

Sivasspor

Arrivals – Jacques Faty (Sochaux), Nihat Şahin (Ofspor), Milan Borjan (Red Belgrad), Kıvanç Karakaş (Karşıyaka), Burçağ Başel (Anadolu Üsküdar 1908 Spor), Caner Hüseyin Bağ (Anadolu Üsküdar 1908 Spor), Murat Akça (Adana Demirspor), Atilla Yıldırım (FC Utrecht), Kerim Zengin (Karabükspor), Milan Cerny (SK Slavia Prague), Atilla Koca (Eskişehirspor), Mahmut Boz (Gençlerbirliği).

Departures: Yannick Kamanan (Mersin İdmanyurdu), Lubos Kamenar, Mehmet Yıldız (Eskişehirspor), Korcan Çelikay, Sedat Bayrak (Orduspor), Abdurrahman Dereli (Orduspor).

Ankaragucu

Arrivals: Serdar Kulbilge (Gençlerbirliği), Bekir Sevgi (Bugsaş), Tonia Tisdell (Mersin İdman Yurdu).

Departures: Michael Wladyslaw Klukowski (Manisaspor), Hürriyet Güçer (Gaziantepspor), Muhammed Türkmen (Karşıyaka), Serdar Özkan, Micheal Zewlakow (Legia Warszawa), Adem Koçak (Bursaspor).

Antalyaspor

Arrivals: Veselin Minev (Levski Sofia), Ali Tandoğan, (Bursaspor), Doğa Kaya (Eskişehirspor), Musa Aydın, (Bucaspor), Mehmet Eren (Kayserispor).

Departures: Fahri Akyol (Bucaspor), Fatih Arat (Bugsaşspor), Veysel Cihan, İlkem Özkaynak, Serge Djehoua, Tuna Üzümcü (Adanaspor), Volkan Altın (Orduspor).

Eskisehirspor

Arrivals:Abdülaziz Solmaz (Samsunspor), Deniz Vural (E. Frankfurt II), Mehmet Boztepe (Borussia Dortmund II), Tarık Çamdal (1860 Munich), Abdülkadir Kayalı (Fenerbahçe), Diomansy Kamara (Fulham), Mehmet

Yıldız (Sivasspor), Serdar Dursun (Hannover 96), Dede (Borussia Dortmund).

Departures: Doğa Kaya (Antalyaspor), Sezer Öztürk (Fenerbahçe), Atilla Koca (Sivasspor).

Genclerbirligi

Arrivals: Fuat Çapa (coach), Mehmet Sedef (Konyaspor), Cafercan Aksu (Konyaspor), Sakıp Aytaç (Dardanelspor), Özgür İleri (Dardanelspor), Ferhat Kaplan (Dardanelspor), Herve Tum (İstanbul B.B.), Gökhan Tokgöz (Konyaspor).

Departures: Mustafa Pektemek (Beşiktaş), Orhan Şam (Fenerbahçe), Efe Halil Özarslan (Bucaspor), Aykut Çeviker (Bucaspor), Alparslan Erdem (Bucaspor), Serdar Kulbilge (Ankaragücü), Murat Kalkan (Ordupor), Ali Akburç (Balıkesirspor), Cafercan Aksu (Boluspor), Mahmut Boz (Sivasspor).

İstanbul BSB

Arrivals: Kamil Zayatte (Konyaspor), Doka Madureira (Litex), Taner Yalçın (Cologne), Pierre Webo (Mallorca), Eren Aydın (Manisaspor), Ömercan Sokullu (Pendikspor) Edin Visca (Zeljeznicar).

Departures: Herve Tum (Gençlerbirliği), Ergun Berisha, Taner Gülleri, İbrahim Akın, İskender Alın.

Turkish Super League Clubs: "Don't punish the teams"

Before the Turkish Super League new season start on this coming Saturday, Super League teams officials met in Ankara.

Fenerbahce deputy chairmen Nihat Ozdemir and Ali Koc, Besiktaş Chairman Yıldırım Demirören, Trabzonspor Chairman Sadri Sener and Galatasaray manager Adnan Özturk were in attendance at the meeting.

They met at in, Genclerbirligi's chief Ilhan Cavcav's office.


Turkey's football clubs agreed and demand on to change a law on match-fixing as the Union of Clubs seeks help of political parties in Ankara.

The current law No. 55 on rigging in sports calls for Relegation for any team is involved in match-fixing scandal.

Speaking on behalf of the union of the Turkish Super League clubs, Mr. Cavcav said, we should separate personal punishment from team punishments.


Turkish football hit hard by an investigation into match-fixing allegations.

Fenerbahce Chairman Aziz Yıldırım and the club's senior managers İlhan Eksioglu and Sekip

Mosturoğlu as well as Besiktaş coach Tayfur Havutcuoglu and names like, coach Bulent Uygun,

Sivasspor chairman Mecnun Odyakmaz are among the prominent figures held in prison as part of the investigation.

Turkey draw with Austria 0-0

Photo(AP)

Turkey missed a penalty in injury time before drawing 0-0 with Austria on Tuesday to boost its chances of finishing second in Euro 2012 qualifying Group A.

The luck ran out for Turkish National team in Vienna on Tuesday night!

Two shots of the post and one missed penalty kick!

Turkish National could not cash in, three points and settled for a draw and one point!

A win would it secure the second place and play-off spot for Euro 2012

But that did not happned!

That is why I said, this was a must-win match to secure the second place.

Now, allthough they are front of Belgium with two points, there is two very important matches for Turkey and Belgium...

They both play against Germany too

Turkey will play against Germany exccatly in one month in Turkey ..

Turkey will play their last match in the group, against Azerbaijan.

Turkish National team can't afford to lose matches, after this draw!

One draw or a loss could put second place in jepordy!

Going back to Tuesday night's match , A star player like Arda Turan should never missed that penalty kick.

Turkey has missed two penalty kicks, in the last two matches!

That is not good...Against Kazkahistan Burak Yilmaz and now Arda Turan!

Do we know who is Turkish National team's penalty kicker?

Last night's missed PK, might bite Turkey, at the end!

Let's just hope that won't happened....


1 Germany 8 24
2 Turkey 8 14
3 Belgium 8 12
4 Austria 8 8
5 Azerbaijan 8 7
6 Kazakhstan 8 3

Turkey face another must-win situation

After beating Kazakhstan with a last-minute goal by Arda Turan last Friday , Turkish national team face another hurdle on the way to secure the second place in the group A.

This time, they will be away in Vienna against Austria....

Turkey with 13 points on second place, six ahead of fourth-place Austria in the group A.

The third place Belgium already played their 8th match and they are with 12 points in the standings..

While Turkey plays serious match against Austria, Belgium will play a friendly match against USA national team on Tuesday.


Germany has already won the group with 24 points and has qualified for the Euro 2012.

Tonight's match against Austria will be make it or brake it for Turkey..

If they win, they will have a run for best runners-up in the qualification group stage of the 2012 European Football Championships.

But, it will not be easy....

Turkish National team will be missing Emre Belozoglu and Selcuk Inan in the midfield.

Emre is injured and Selcuk is out with a red card suspension....


Guus Hiddink: "It is important match for both teams"

Speaking at the press conference, Hiddink said, it is very crucial match for both teams. Austria wants to win this match too.

He said, we want to win this match so we could welcome month of October with a win because Turkey always do good in the month of October.

Turkish National Team Squad For Upcoming EURO 2012

Turkey's squad for the upcoming EURO 2012 qualifying matches against Kazakhstan and Austria has been announced Guus Hidddink.

Players will meet at İstanbul Swissotel The Bosphorus'da on 27 August Saturday.

Turkey head coach Guus Hiddink will hold a press conference at Swissotel on 1 September Thursday.

Turkey-Kazakhstan EURO 2012 qualifying match will kick off at Turk Telekom Arena on 2 September Friday at 20.00 local Turkey time.


After that match, Turkish national team will fly to Vienna on September 4th.


Austria-Turkey EURO 2012 qualifier will be played at Ernst Happel Stadium on September 6th at 20.30 Turkey time.

Players list......



1-VOLKAN DEMİREL

FENERBAHÇE

2- SİNAN BOLAT

STANDARD LIEGE

3-TOLGA ZENGİN

TRABZONSPOR A.Ş.

4- GÖKHAN GÖNÜL

FENERBAHÇE

5-SABRİ SARIOĞLU

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

6- SERDAR KESİMAL

FENERBAHÇE

7- GÖKHAN ZAN

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

8- SERVET ÇETİN

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

9- EGEMEN KORKMAZ

BEŞİKTAŞ A.Ş.

10- HAKAN KADİR BALTA

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

11- İSMAİL KÖYBAŞI

BEŞİKTAŞ A.Ş.

12- ÇAĞLAR BİRİNCİ

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

13- MEHMET EKİCİ

WERDER BREMEN

14- TUNAY TORUN

HERTHA BSC

15- SELÇUK İNAN

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

16- SELÇUK ŞAHİN

FENERBAHÇE

17- EMRE BELÖZOĞLU

FENERBAHÇE

18- MEHMET TOPAL

VALENCIA C.F.

19- ARDA TURAN

CLUB ATLETICO DE MADRID

20- GÖKHAN TÖRE

HAMBURGER SV

21- BURAK YILMAZ

TRABZONSPOR A.Ş.

22- CENK TOSUN

GAZİANTEPSPOR

23- KAZIM KAZIM

GALATASARAY A.Ş.

24- UMUT BULUT

TOULOUSE FC