Memorable moments: the Czech Republic had EURO 2008 in the bag, but then came the collapse with Turkey

For many Czech fans, the EURO 2004 semi-final against Greece was the blackest memory associated with football. Four years later, the Czechs added another sad memory, this time in the group stage against Turkey.

Memorable Moments is a special project by Ruiku that recalls the most iconic moments that have happened in football. Today we look back at the collapse of the Czech national team at EURO 2008.

A decent start

The Czech Republic had the honour of starting the championship with the opening match against home team Switzerland. The match didn’t bring anything interesting for a long time, until in the 71st minute the Swiss turned away a centre, the ball came back into the penalty area and Václav Svěrkoš volleyed it into the net with his shin.

In the second match, Portugal defeated our competitors for promotion, Turkey 2: 0 and the first round went according to our expectations. In the second match, the Czechs expectedly fell to Portugal 1: 3, and in the second match Turkey defeated Switzerland 2: 1.

Before the last match, Portugal had 6 points, Czech Republic and Turkey 3, Switzerland 0. Czechs had the same score with Turkey – 2::3 – so in case of a draw, other circumstances would have been decisive.

A 2::0 lead

But the Czechs played the game brilliantly. In the 34th minute, Libor Sionko sent a great centre into the penalty area, which Jan Koller jumped on and opened the scoring. In the 62nd minute, Jaroslav Plašil jumped on another great centre from the right side and the Czechs were up 2: 0!

Then David Rozehnal had another great chance, but his penalty shot hit the bar. The Turkish goalkeeper had no problem to catch the subsequent shot.

With 15 minutes to go, Karel Brückner’s men were still leading 2:0 and seemed to have no problem keeping their progress. Thousands of fans were already slowly buying tickets to Vienna, where the quarter-final against Croatia was to be played. But there was a huge collapse.

In the 75th minute, a shot flew across the Czech penalty area and Arda Turan shot to the bar to reduce the score to 1:2. That was a warning for the Czechs, but still nothing happened because they kept advancing.

Collapse

The final minutes were approaching and the Czechs were still holding on to the advancing result. The Turks were increasing their momentum and had huge chances, but Petr Čech kept the ball in the net. But then came the fateful 87th minute.

Čech failed to hold Altintop’s perfectly light centre, which fell out of his hands, his mistake was immediately punished by captain Nihat Kahveci, who tapped the ball into the empty net. The Czech team was stunned, but the progress was not lost.

But the Czechs were so shaken by the loss of the lead that they conceded a third time. Practically a minute later, Kahveci received a pass behind the defence and hit the crossbar with a beautiful shot.

Turkey thus turned the game around in the final minutes and advanced to the quarter-finals, where they rode a wave of euphoria and beat Croatia on penalties, eventually reaching the semi-finals. There the Turks were stopped by Germany.

One of the saddest matches in the history of Czech football was ironically played by one of the best Czech footballers in history, Petr Čech. However, all the blame does not go to him, there were more chances than just 2 goals.

Source: UEFA, Youtube