Euro 2012 News: Kazakhstan defeated by Turkey 3-0, Analysis (Part 1)
Kazakhstan starting lineup: Andrei Sidelnikov (Goal Keeper), Aleksandr Kirov, Renat Abdulin, Aleksandr Kislitsyn, Andrei Karpovich(Captain), Sergei Ostapenko, Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev, Azat Nurgaliyev, Genrikh Shmidtgal, Aleksei Popov, Maksim Azovski.
Turkey starting lineup: Onur Kıvrak (Goal Keeper), Servet Çetin, Hakan Balta, Emre Belözoğlu (Captain), Hamit Altıntop, Nihat Kahveci, Tuncay Şanlı, Arda Turan, Mehmet Aurélio, Ömer Erdoğan, Sabri Sarıoğlu.
Kazakhstan substitutes: Aleksandr Mokin (Goal Keeper) Denis Radionov, Evgeni Averchenko, Sergei Skorykh, Sergei Khizhnichenko, Mikhail Rozhkov, Gleb Maltsev.
Turkey substitutes: Sinan Bolat (Goal Keeper), Selçuk İnan, Sercan Yıldırım, İsmail Köybaşı, Colin Kazım Richards, İbrahim Toraman, Halil Altıntop.
The match between Turkey and Kazakhstan took place at Ortalyk Tsentralnyi Stadium with an audience attendance around 25,000. The home crowd proved to be a huge advantage for the Turkish team.
The game started with whistle-blowing form referee Istvan Vad of Hungary and straight away Turkey started to dominate. They cruised till the 5th minute mark and established their dominance despite receiving shocking replies here and there.
The Turks won most of the penalty corners and they drew first blood after gaining a free kick in the 24th minute, while it seemed hard for the Kazakhs to cope up. Although, they won the ball here and there and were even able to get some penalty corners, yet they weren’t really able to contain the ball for long.
This was where the Turkish team out done them as Turan repossessed the ball and yet again attempted to score even after minutes of the first goal. Turkey’s second goal happened when they won a penalty corner and then capitalized on it. After the whistle, it seemed as if Kazakhstan had finally woken up with their German coach Bernd Storck filling them in with strategies to counter the Turkish offence.
The Turkish team’s Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink was, however, wary of this and he had trained his team well. Turkey still had more possession and they tried to make plays in the midfield and progress from the fronts. After an additional minute of injury time during the first half, break was called with the score line reading 2-0.
With the start of 2nd half, Kazakhstan looked aggressive on the front and they attempted to score but the Turkish shot stopper Onur Kıvrak was up for the job. Turkey soon responded with their counter-attack but this time Kazakh glove man Sidelnikov was ready.
In the 58th minute, Karpovich was shown a yellow card. The game, henceforth, intensified. Turan took the free kick and Sidelnikov had to make another save. Both teams tried to flank the ball in but Turkey seemed more successful. However, Kazakhstan players on the wings like Karpovich stopped the ball from progressing.
In the 62nd minute, another Kazakh player, Zhumaskaliyev was shown the yellow card while during the 64th minute a substitution was made, as Radionov was brought in for Karpovich.
From here on, a lot of midfield play started but none of the teams were really successful in accomplishing the high level of expertise required in making spectacular moves. Eventually, they played the ball to the wings from there.
The 72nd minute showed yet another substitution, this time Ostapenko was replaced by Maltsev. This was followed by a foul in the 75th minute by Radionov on Emre Belözoğlu and the Turkish team used it to its full potential as Nihat Kahveci scored another goal.
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