Austria 1 Turkey 2 Dark horses running wild. What a wonderful sight and wonderful night. One to light up Leipzig and reignite Euro 2024 ahead of quarter-final weekend.
Turkey will be there. Austria won’t. That’s what the scoreline a couple of inches above this line told you.
But it tells you nothing of the beautiful chaos that blossomed here from minute one through to 96 as Arda Guler, all 19 years of him, 10.5 stone soaking wet, carried his country to a last-eight showdown with the Dutch in Berlin. He was indeed soaked, by beer and East German rain.
By the end he was soaked in tears too. Guler eliminated Ralf Rangnick, the tournament’s outstanding coach, who had adjusted to a terrific Vincenzo Montella plan but couldn’t adjust enough. Austria’s one set-piece goal was offset by two from the Turks, both buried by Merih Demiral after deliciously dangerous Guler deliveries.
The scoreline doesn’t tell you of Mert Günok’s outstretched paw in the 95th minute either, one last act of Turkish defiance, desperately clawing away a Christoph Baumgartner header. An incredible save to round off a quite incredible contest. It started like a cross between basketball and bull fighting, found room amid a saturating second-half mist to become water polo meets Takeshi's Castle, and then went back where it started.
A last 16 which had given us Italy’s ignominy, VARstorm in Dortmund, Jude’s bike’n’balls special, Spanish swagger, French drudgery and whatever the hell Cristia.
