Hakan saves Turkey from home embarrassment

Turkey 3 Macedonia

Marc Shaw,Istanbul
Wednesday 11 June 2003 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Turkey were forced to come from behind twice at home to Macedonia here last night as they kept up the challenge in England's Euro 2004 qualifying group. But they may face an inquiry into missile throwing after Macedonia's second goal.

The Macedonians went ahead twice, with Aco Stoikov and Artim Sakiri sandwiching Nihat Kahveci's blockbuster for a half-time advantage. But the second half belonged to the Turks, with Gokdeniz Karadeniz and Hakan Sukur turning the match on its head.

The visitors went ahead in the 23rd minute when Lazarevski found space on the left and fed in a low cross to the near post that Stoikov, slotted past the Barcelona target Rustu Recber. But Emre Belozoglu played the ball in to Nihat, who let fly with a thunderous strike past Petar Milosevski to level the scores.

The visitors restored their lead after 28 minutes when the West Bromwich target, Artim Sakiri, bundled the ball home. During the celebrations Lazarevski was hit by a missile thrown from the irate supporters and, to his credit, Rustu ran over to the stricken player to protect him from further punishment as more objects rained down.

But Turkey were level two minutes after the break when Fatih Tekke set up Gokdeniz and, in the 59th minute Nihat set up Hakan for the winner.

Turkey: Rustu Recber; Emre Belozoglu (Gokdeniz Karadeniz, 43), Bulent Korkmaz, Fatih Akyel, Alpay Ozalan (Ahmet Yildiri, 72); Ergun Penbe, Tayfun Korkut (Okan Yilmaz, h-t), Tugay Kerimoglu; Hakan Sukur (Volkan Arslan, 78), Ibrahim Uzulmez, Nihat Kahveci.

Macedonia: Milosevski; Bozinovski (Poleski, 76), Vasoski, Sedloski, Jancevski; Mitreski, Stoikov, Sumolikoski; Grozdanovski (Nuhiyi, 56), Sakiri, Lazarevski.

Referee: R Rosetti (Italy).

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in