Late strike beats England

Turkey 3-2 England

UEFA European U17 Championship
Stadio Ettore Mannucci, Pontedera
05 May 2005

England lost their second match of the UEFA European U17 Championship to a strong Turkey side but are still sitting at the top of Group A and in with a good chance of qualifying for the tournament's latter stages.

A first half brace from Tevfik Kose gave Turkey a two goal lead at half-time but a second-half double from Joe Garner brought England back into the match before a magnificent goal from Nuri Sahin saw the Turks triumph.

England had started brightly and seemed keen to exploit the pace of Myles Weston and Theo Walcott on the flanks. This tactic gave England some joy and Garner connected with one Weston cross but his header went across the face of goal.

Turkey were unlucky to lose to Italy in their opening match on Tuesday and they signalled their attacking intentions with two flowing attacks. First they came down the right, where Yilmaz's overlapping run opened up England's defence before Ozcan broke on the left to briefly threaten England's goal.

The match was finely poised and England still looked to be positive in the final third - Davies controlled a poor clearance from the keeper, beat his man but couldn't quite find a way through.

Theo Walcott had been giving Erkan Ferin a torrid time on the left flank and on 12 minutes he again raced past the Turkish right back and crossed for Joe Garner to crash a powerful shot at goal which Babacan saved well.

Nine minutes later, Turkey look the lead with a nice move down the inside right channel. Kose latched on to Caner Erkin's through-pass and finished well past David Button.

Suddenly Turkey were on top and Erkin's shot from the edge of the area curled just wide of Button's left-hand post.

England were struggling to live with the midfield creative play of Erkin and Sahin and they combined to give Turkey a second goal, again Kose finishing well from inside the box.

Two minutes before the break, Denis Yilmaz again capitalised on a mis-placed pass in midfield and was only denied a shooting opportunity when Button's quick reactions saw the tall keeper claim at the Bursaspor player's feet.

England must have come out for the second half hoping for an early goal and they found a way back into the match with just that as Joe Garner scored his second of the tournament.

Myles Weston's cross from the left found Garner whose attempt to connect with the ball was foiled by the efforts of Babacan, who dived low at the Blackburn man's feet.

The ball spilled out of the keeper's hands and Ferhat Bikmaz's attempted clearance fell invitingly for Garner who tucked the ball into the corner of the goal from only a couple of yards out.

Still Turkey posed a threat and just a couple of minutes after the England goal, the Turks were awarded a free-kick 27 yards out. Ozgurcan Ozcan hit a wonderful right-footed shot which curled up and over the England wall and smashed into the crossbar.

England still came forward looking for the equaliser and on 60 minutes they found it with a ball knocked into the Turkish box from back on the half-way line.

The pass was flicked on and Garner was there to rise high and direct a looping header over Babacan.

England were now on top and continued to pose an attacking threat through Walcott and substitute James Vaughan.

However John Peacock's side were hit by a sucker punch on 71 minutes when a wonderful strike from Sahin decided the match.

A loose ball on the edge of the area did not seem to pose England many dangers but that would be reckoning without Sahin, who hit a sweet left-foot volley into the top right-hand corner of goal.