Turkey 3 - 1 Georgia
This match, and equivalent ones from years gone by, are the reason that I love watching tournament football. On paper, it looks for all the world like one to miss. But these ones rarely are.
As the anthems blared out, the Turkish fans drowned the stadium with a noise you could only imagine for a Galatasaray 'Welcome to Hell' style clash with Manchester United. Such passion. It left me wondering what beef the Turks have with Georgia. One Google maps visit later and I'm reminded that they border each other, so it's a local derby. Further searches reveal that the Ottomans and Georgia had a bit of rough and tumble in their time, most recently in the Battle of Batumi (1921) where Georgia tried to remove the Turkish Army from their land.
And so to proceedings tonight. A rampant Turkish start, culminating in a Müldür howitzer. They thumped one against the inside of the post and were a boot offside denying them a second. For all the world it looked like they'd romp it. And then came Georgia. They slowed the pace a bit, built their own rhythm and got back into the game. I love that I'd heard of literally NONE of their players. Yet they played as if they belonged.
The second half was equally as wild. Arda Guler scored a brilliant winner, but Georgia hit bar and then post in the dying seconds before conceding a third on the break whilst their keeper had advanced for a last ditch corner.
The last two days have really shown the beauty of this competition, and without it's expanded format we may not have seen tonight's match. Something about teams playing with hope rather than expectation frees them from pressure and shackles and makes the football intense and entertaining.
Now onto the Ronaldo show...
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