Watch Germany vs Turkey live european championship
Germany face Turkey in the european championship qualifiers today and here's a report of the match the last time the sides met in this competition in the last euro championships in the semi final.
Germany 3 Turkey 2
European championship 2008 Semi Final 25th June 2008
Germany defender Philip Lahm hit a last gasp 90th minute goal to send Germany to the final of euro 2008 and their chance of regaining the last trophy they won, at euro 96, 12 years ago. Luckless Turkey were sent packing after giving a spirited tussle to the Germans and making them have to dig deep to gain victory.
The turks were having to field a fairly weakened team with suspensions and injuries and even with their heroic comeback wins in their last 3 matches at the euro championships it still looked a tall order for them to defeat the 3 time winners of the competition, twice in 1972 and 1980 as West Germany and once as a united German team at euro 96. However Turkey were far the stronger outfit as they created many opportunities in the opening stages and caused German keeper Jens Lehmann some real anxiety. They managed to take the lead with Ugur Boral's opener in the 22nd minute after Turkish player Kazim-Richards sent in a cross which ended up looping onto the bar and Boral was on hand to dispatch the rebound.
They couldn't maintain the advantage for long however as Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger levelled things 5 minutes after the Turkey struck after Lukas Podolski sent a low cross into the area and Schweinsteiger stoke in behind the defenders to divert the ball into the corner of the net past a helpless Rustu Recber.
Germany managed to claw back some power in the second half and made a much more evenly balanced tie and after much exchange German Striker Miroslav Klose fired Germany ahead in the 79th minute after he came to take a lofted cross from Philip Lahm and loop the header into the Turkey net. Many other sides would have folded after such a heavy knock so late on in the match but as Turkey have proved in this competition they are made of much sterner stuff after their 3 fightbacks in their last 3 matches.
They went on to grab another goal to level things minutes later as Sabri crossed low into the German box and strike Semih prodded the ball past keeper Lehmann at his near post to make it all square and the victor of the match anyone's guess. The game looked to be heading into extra time but up popped the pint sized full back Lahm to fire home the winner in the dying seconds to send Germany to another final where they will meet Spain Or Russia.
To watch a stream of today's European championship qualifier between the 2 teams click below to watch:
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