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Turkey - Road to Euro

Nihat Kahveci - star of the Team

Nihat Kahveci – footballer from Turkey born on 23rd November 1979 in Stambul. He is a striker. He was raised by school of Besiktas. He made his debut in Besiktas in 1998 where he played 115 matches scoring 27 goals. Just before 2001/2002 season a coach of Besiktas John Toshack left Turkey and became a coach of Real Sociedad San Sebastian. The coach got the Turk to Spain in 2002 and he played there until 2006. Two years later Nihat Kahveci became the third goalscorer of Primiera Division and in the following season he was able to play in Champions League with his team. Despite offers from stronger clubs, he decided to stay in Sociedad. In 2006 he joined Villareal on a free transfer. In that season he sustained a terrible injury and he was getting over from it for the whole season. He played just in the last game. In this season Villareal with Nihat as a striker performs very well and it will play in the next edition of Champions League without a need of qualifying. He scored 18 goals in 46 matches in the team of Yellow Submarine. In 2000 he made his debut in Turkish national team and played 46 matches scoring 12 goals. He won a bronze medal with his team on World Cup.

Turkey - National Team

Player	Club	Position	Age	Value
Volkan Demirel	Fenerbahçe SK	Goalkeeper	26	3,500,000E
Rüştü Reçber	Beşiktaş JK	Goalkeeper	35	1,500,000E
Tolga Zengin	Trabzonspor	Goalkeeper	24	1,300,000E
Gökhan Zan	Beşiktaş JK	Defender	26	5,000,000E
Servet Çetin	Galatasaray AŞ	Defender	27	5,000,000E
Sabri Sarıoğlu	Galatasaray AŞ	Defender	23	4,400,000E
Hakan Balta	Galatasaray AŞ	Defender	25	3,200,000E
Gökhan Gönül	Fenerbahçe SK	Defender	23	2,400,000E
Uğur Boral	Fenerbahçe SK	Defender	26	2,200,000E
Emre Aşık	Galatasaray AŞ	Defender	34	1,500,000E
Tuncay Şanlı	Middlesbrough FC	Midfielder	26	9,000,000E
Arda Turan	Galatasaray AŞ	Midfielder	21	7,500,000E
Emre Belözoğlu	Newcastle United FC	Midfielder	27	7,500,000E
Gökdeniz Karadeniz	FC Rubin Kazan	Midfielder	28	7,500,000E
Mehmet Aurélio	Fenerbahçe SK	Midfielder	30	7,300,000E
Hamit Altıntop	FC Bayern München	Midfielder	25	6,000,000E
Ayhan Akman	Galatasaray AŞ	Midfielder	31	3,300,000E
Tümer Metin	Larissa FC	Midfielder	33	2,500,000E
Kazım Kazım	Fenerbahçe SK	Midfielder	21	2,200,000E
Mehmet Topal	Galatasaray AŞ	Midfielder	22	2,200,000E
Nihat Kahveci	Villarreal CF	Forward	28	12,000,000E
Mevlüt Erding	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	Forward	21	4,500,000E
Semih Şentürk	Fenerbahçe SK	Forward	25	3,500,000E
Averages:			26.4	4,570,000E

Formations

Turkey - Picks

Date	Time	Team	Score	Team
7 June 2008	20:45	Portugal	2-0	Turkey
Pick:	1X	Odd:	1.16: Centrebet
Doubtless in the group A, Portugal and Czech Republic have the largest chances for qualification, but you can not scorn the teams of Turkey and Switzerland here. Portugal despite many stars in the team such as: Ronaldo, Carvalho, Deco, Nani and many others who play well in clubs but can’t find form in national team. Overall, they have been playing poor recently. During the last two friendly matches they encountered losses with Italy and Greece. They also didn’t play well in the second part of Euro 2008 qualifications. They drew with Poland at home, Serbia and Armenia. Modest victories came with weak European teams such as: Azerbejdzan or Kazakhstan. The team of Turkey also doesn’t lack stars but smaller format. The majority of Turkish players play in Turkish clubs. We all know Nihat perfectly, playing for Villareal. He is in excellent form recently. This is his great contribution to the team that led Villareal to qualifying for Champions League. On EURO, responsibility for play will be laid upon his shoulders and I reckon he will fulfil all his duties during matches. I think that although the Turks are on a little lower level than the Portuguese, they are capable of a little surprise. I however will bet in this game on under 2.5 goal because many matches of these teams ended with such a result. Both teams will not want to put everything at stake already in the first game in the group.
11 June 2008	20:45	Switzerland	1-2	Turkey
Pick:	1	Odd:	2.3: Interwetten
This is little attractive game in the group A, but very important for both these teams. None of them will want to be last because this does not bring fame and glory. The Swiss look better for me. They show better playing style than the Turks. These second don’t have much better footballers than the Swisss. Except for Nihat, whose duty will be scoring goals, none of the players can be depend on. However Villareal’s striker by himself will not do much and you can hardly count on help from the colleagues from the team. The Switzerland despite the fact that they also don’t have anything particular to be proud of, they are however the hosts of the tournament and I believe they should deal with Turkish national team.
15 June 2008	20:45	Turkey	3-2	Czech Republic
Pick:	2	Odd:	2.4: Interwetten
A very important game for both teams. It is worth mentioning that both teams have the same balance of goals 2 : 3, so draw in this game will not bring anything to the table. That’s why these teams have to try to play for full points. Turkey got 3 points in the game against Switzerland by a miracle scoring a goal in injury time, but the conditions for playing were not normal and none of teams could really present theirs skills as puddles and heavy rain made it impossible. They lost earlier in their first game with Portugal 2 : 0. Czechs do not impress with their play in this tournament. If it was not for Cech they could have been packing and going home after this match. They’ve got however 3 points on their account achieved in the match against Switzerland. They were playing very poorly and nobody really deserved 3 points. It is opposite and they still have chances to qualify from the group. The condition is a win over Turkey in the last game. This game will be crucial for the final standing as Portugal secured their qualification earlier while Swiss didn’t gain a point. Czechs, despite a 3 : 1 result, showed a little better football. I reckon that national team of Czech will rise to the challenge under pressure and beat Turkey. You can see lack of some players in their team. No Rosicky, Poborsky and other significant players is visible. Baros and Koller haven’t contributed well and yet they are rather a burden for the national team. Despite all this, I think the Czech team will be able to grab a win in this game.