When Ivan Klasnic headed in Luka Modric’s cross with a minute of the overtime period to play, Croatia looked to have booked their place in Wednesday’s semi-final against Germany. However, for the third game running, Turkey sensationally hit back at the death to force the first shoot-out of these finals when Semih Sentürk drove in from the edge of the area. They went on to win 3-1 on penalties after Rüstü Reçber saved Mladen Petric’s kick following earlier misses from Modric and Ivan Rakitic. Turkey coach Fatih Terim, though, will struggle to get a team together to play Germany with Emre Asik, Tuncay Sanli and Arda Turan all suspended along with Volkan Demirel after being booked here.

International football proved itself yet again to know no boundaries when it comes to cruelty, as Croatia were sent packing from Euro 2008 by Turkey in the most astonishing circumstances. If football was run on a basis of commonsense like most other sports, and timed matches offically rather than leaving it up to one individual’s watch, Turkey would now be on their way home. Instead they scored the latest goal ever in the history of the European Championships, 121 minutes and 4 seconds into the match, which was 4 seconds after their time should have been up.

It was astonishing finish to a dreadful game, especially for Turkey keeper Rustu, who made an awful error that looked to have given Crotia victory before his free-kick set up Semih for the leveller as referee Roberto Rosetti prepared to blow the final whistle.
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic, who had celebrated what he thought was a famous victory with his players only seconds earlier, could not lift his deflated players and they looked a beaten side even before the penalty shoot-out.

Yine inanilmazi basardik !.. A Milli Takimimiz, yine inanilmaz bir maçla EURO 2008′e yari finale yükseldi !..
Hirvatistan ile oynadigimiz maçin 90 dakikasinin 0-0 sona ermesinin ardindan, uzatmalara gidildi. 119. dakikada Rüstü’nün büyük hatasiyla Hirvatlar 1-0 öne geçti. O anda tüm Türkiye dondu kaldi, herkes buraya kadarmis dedi ama Türk mucizesi bir kez daha kendini gösterdi. Semih Sentürk 121. dakikada skoru 1-1′e getirdi. Bu kez Hirvatlar yikildi, Millilerimiz o moralle penaltilari 3-1 kazandi ve yari finale çikan takim oldu.
119. dakikada Hirvatistan golü buldu. Gelisen Hirvat ataginda Modric ortaladi, Rüstü’nün ve savunmamizin büyük hatasiyla Klasnic kafayla skoru 1-0′a getirdi.
Ama bitmedi !.. 122. dakikada Semih skora dengeyi getirdi. Ceza sahasinda topu önünde bulan Semih nefis vurdu, maç penaltilara kaldi.
Ilk penaltiyi Modric kaçirdi, Arda atti: 0-1 Hirvatlar’da Srna golü 2. penaltida buldu. Semih ile tekrar öne geçtik: 1-2 Rakitic de kaçirdi. Hamit ile 3-1′e getirdik skoru. Petric’in son penaltisini Rüstü kurtardi, Millilerimiz EURO 2008′de yari finale adini yazdirdi, Avrupa’nin en iyi 4 takimindan biri oldu!.

Croatia have steamed into the Quarter Finals of Euro 2008 after stunning tournament favourites Germany 2-1. Croatia took the lead off the boot of Darijo Srna. Ivica Olic then doubled the score for Croatia before Lukas Podolski gave the Germans a late consolation goal. Germany must now beat Austria to assure themselves of a quarterfinal berth. In another group B match, Austria held Poland to a 1-1 draw via an injury time penalty strike from substitute Ivica Vastic. Earlier, Roger Guerreiro had scored for Poland.

Croatia bristled with imagination and inspiration as they dealt Germany a 2-1 Euro 2008 Group B defeat here on Thursday in one of the biggest surprises of the tournament so far.
The Croats were well worth their victory – which came 10 years after the biggest result in their history when they beat the same opponents 3-0 in the World Cup quarter-finals – as they took charge of the group and are now almost guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals.
Coach Slaven Bilic, who played in the 3-0 win in Lyon in 1998, said the Germans should not be written off.

Well what a night. As if defeating Germany wasn’t good enough, but a late late penalty converted by Ivica Vastic (karma anyone?) saw us not only qualify for quarterfinals, but qualify as group winners regardless of how our match with Poland plays out (head to head is the first criteria).

U Klagenfurtu koji je jucer bio Hrvatska u malom. Procjenjuje se da je samo na stadionu bilo oko 30.000 Hrvata. Naši su nadigrali Nijemce koji su bili bez ideje. Kljuc pobjede je to što smo natrcali Njemacku. Bili smo puno konkretniji. Njemacku mrežu naceo je Darijo Srna u 24.minuti.na asistenciju Danijela Pranjica. U prvom dijelu smo imali još dvije odlicne šanse Nike Kranjcara, ali na poluvremenu je bilo 1 0. U drugom dijelu Nijemci su nas malo stisnuli. No Hrvatska se brzo oslobodila tog pritiska i ponovno preuzela inicijativu. U 62. minuti nakon odlicnog udarca Ivana Rakitica lopta je iznenadila Jensa Lehmanna od stative se odbila na nogu Ivici Olicu koji ju je pospremio u mrežu za 2 0Do kraja smo imali još jednu dobru šansu ali, samo je u 79. minuti Lukas Podolski smanjio na konacnih 2 1. Predstojilo je još teškiih jedanaest minuta do kraja. Hrvatska je to odigrala sjajnoi nije dozvolila Njemackoj izjednacenje. U 90. minuti je još Bastian zaradio I crveni karton zbog udaranja Jerka Leke. Bez ikakve pristranosti moram reci da je belgijski sudac Frank de Blekere odlicno je odsudio utakmicu. To je uostalom I potvrdio naš ugledni sudacki kriticar Mateo Beusan.