Holland has benefited from the unfortunate absences of their opponents in almost all of their matches in the European football tournament.
European Football Championships on channels 14.6.–14.7. Go to the competition website from this link.
Holland and Turkey will meet in the quarterfinals of the European Football Championship on Saturday, and at least the odds favor the Dutch.
Uefa ordered the Turkish defender by Merih Demiral on Friday to a two-game suspension. The topper, who scored two goals in the quarterfinals against Austria, would be an important part of the team’s starting line-up.
In any case, the midfielders from Turkey are sidelined Orkun Kökcü and Ismail Yüksekwho were automatically banned from the game because their card account was full.
The Netherlands has benefited from important opponents’ absences before.
Its games started in Group D with a match against Poland, where Poland played without its star striker Robert Lewandowski. The Barcelona player was injured in the last training match before the start of the European Championship and was only able to play later in the group stage. Holland won the match 2–1.
Next up was France, the pre-favorite of the group. The opponent played again without their best player, as the captain Kylian Mbappé broke his nose in the opening game and sat on the bench for the entire game. The match ended in a goalless draw.
In the last round of the group stage, the Netherlands lost to Austria 2–3, and finished third in the group, which was defeated by the winner of the E group in the quarterfinals. There was also luck on the way, because Group E was extremely even and after all the teams ended up with equal points, the opponent of Holland became Romania, whose ranking on the Fifa ranking list is the fourth worst among the competition teams.
Turkey does not accept the decision
The reason for Demiral’s suspension is goal ventilation. Demiral was found to have made the “wolf salute”, which has been associated with Turkish nationalist movements and parties.
According to several Turkish media, Turkey is about to appeal the decision to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.
– UEFA’s decision to ban our player is unacceptable. We await a fair correction to the decision and a close examination of our defense. The excitement and beauty of football should not be overshadowed by political decisions, Turkey’s vice president Cevdet Yilmaz complained on Twitter.
Demiral’s airing and suspension has also started a political conflict. Already on Thursday, several media, including a news agency AP reportedthat the president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has canceled his trip to Azerbaijan and will arrive for Turkey’s quarter-final match in Berlin.
Holland more than ever
The Netherlands defeated Romania 3–0 and returned to the quarterfinals of the European Championship after a 16-year absence. The last time it was among the eight was in the summer of 2008. Staying in the group stage in 2012 broke the streak of six games, during which Holland was always at least in the quarterfinals, four times in the semifinals, and once also champion.
In the previous tournament, Holland was eliminated in the quarterfinals by losing to the Czech Republic 0–2. In 2016, it was completely out of the final tournament.
Holland and Turkey will play the last of their quarter-finals, on Saturday at 10 p.m. The winner will face the winner of the England-Switzerland match in the semifinals.
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