The Downfall Continues: Turkey 0 - 1 Greece

The Downfall Continues: Turkey 0 - 1 Greece
By Ozgur R. Nazilli

Another poor performance last night saw Turkey being defeated by Greece for the first time in history. The fans at the Ali Sami Yen Stadi, Galatasaray's home stadium, were left with a bitter taste in their mouth after their hopes of the European finals were dashed by Amanatidis' goal just 10 minutes before the end of the game.

Terim's students have been on a very poor streak recently, with only 1 win in the last 8 games. After last night's performance, even the fans who had paid to watch the game live booed Terim and asked him to resign. The players on the pitch got their share of the hissing and the booing, with the exception of Aurelio, who was applauded for his will to fight every time he touched the ball.

Turkey is left with only 2 games to the end of the qualifiers and they are 2 points behind the second placed Norwegians. We need to beat Norway in an away game to be able to join Greece in qualifying for the finals.

The general view is that it is a good thing that the National Team does not have to play the last two games now, since the morale of the team is very low, with the confidence in them being even lower.

We will see just how far Turkey can go when we play Norway, since Turkey has to win that crucial match to be able to qualify for the finals, which seems all the more unlikely after the team's performance last night. Hopefully, they will be able to turn "something" around and win back the spirit of the 4-1 Greece victory. Otherwise, Euro 2008 looks like it will share the fate of World Cup 2006, and end in a major disappointment.