Turkey take football 5 European crown

The answer came quickly with Turkey playing confidently, keeping a player forward throughout. As soon as they got possession of the ball Kahraman Kurbetoglu slipped it into the net to give his team the lead.

Turkey emerged victorious at the 2015 Blind Football European Championships on Saturday (29 August), with a 1-0 win over Russia in Hereford, Great Britain.

The two teams began the day knowing that their place at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games was secure but ready to fight for the title.

After the tension of Friday (28 August), where four-out-of-five matches, including both semi-finals, went to penalties, the question was the tactics the teams would adopt.

The answer came quickly with Turkey playing confidently, keeping a player forward throughout. As soon as they got possession of the ball Kahraman Kurbetoglu slipped it into the net to give his team the lead.

From there Russia fought back. They defended with the skill they had shown all week though Anton Iakovlev, who went on to win the Golden Gloves Award, was not challenged in the way he had been in some other matches.

This was no one-sided match however, with Evgenii Shelaev in particular working hard for every moment he was on the pitch. Sergey Manzhos and Denis Egorov took charge in front while Alexey Loktionov was strong in his own half.

But Turkey, despite coming under regular attack, looked confident throughout. The names that have earned so much respect this week featured prominently once again; Emrah Ocal, Kurbetoglu, Hasan Satay, Celal Coban and Ercan Bayraktar all played their part in ensuring Russia were kept at bay to the final whistle.

The final minute lasted an age with substitutions and a time out during which the coach for Turkey could be heard reminding his team of the importance of ‘voy,’ knowing that with 28.1 seconds left on the clock the ball would be in Russia’s possession. Denis Egorov ran, Abdullah Sumer cleared and the clock ran down.

If Turkey continue to build on this form they look like a team with very real potential to dominate Rio in 2016.

Outgoing champions Spain beat hosts England 1-0 on penalties in the third place play-offs.