EURO '08: Tenacious Turks claw past Croatia

• by Ridge Mahoney  @ridgemax, Jun 23, 2008

[TURKEY-CROATIA REPORT CARD] Turkey added yet another unbelievable comeback to its Euro 2008 adventure by equalizing (1-1) in stoppage time of extra time, and then dispatching Croatia on penalties, 3-1, to qualify for its first semifinal.

Keeper Rustu Recber, whose long free kick flew and bounced kindly for Semih Senturk to smash home the equalizer in the second minute of stoppage time, repelled Croatia's fourth penalty kick by Petric after Luka Modric and Ivan Ratikic had fired their spot kicks wide. Ivan Klasnic's header in the 119th minute had given Croatia a very brief lead the amazing Turks wiped out with their third last-minute stunner of the competition. Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney grades the players.

Turkey Player Ratings
GRADE PLAYER (CLUB) GP/G
6 Rustu Recber (Besiktas) 117/0
5 Hamit Altintop (Bayern Munich) 46/2
5 Emre Asik (Galatasaray) 31/2
4 Gokhan Zan (Besiktas) 21/0
5Hakan Balta (Galatasaray) 12/1
6 Sabri Sarioglu (Galatasaray) 16/1
5 Mehmet Topal (Galatasaray) 8/0
5 Arda Turan (Galatasaray) 21/3
3 Kazim Kazim (Fenerbahce) 6/0
4 Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough) 57/15
4 Nihat Kahveci (Villarreal) 58/17
Subs:
7 Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce) 8/3
5 Ugur Boral (Fenerbahce) 27/8
nr Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Rubin Kazan) 48/6

Croatia Player Ratings
GRADE PLAYER (CLUB) GP/G
5 Stipe Pletikosa (Spartak Moscow) 72/0
5 Vedran Corluka (Manchester City) 24/0
6 Robert Kovac (Borussia Dortmund) 77/0
7 Josip Simunic (Hertha Berlin) 66/3
6 Danijel Pranjic (Heerenveen) 15/0
5 Niko Kovac (Red Bull Salzburg) 80/14
7 Luka Modric (Dinamo Zagreb) 29/4
5 Darijo Srna (Shakhtar Donetsk) 58/16
4 Ivan Rakitic (Schalke 04) 11/1
4 Niko Kranjcar (Portsmouth) 45/7
3 Ivica Olic (Hamburg) 57/10
Subs:
4 Mladen Petric (Borussia Dortmund) 27/9
6 Ivan Klasnic (Werder Bremen) 31/10