Germany win in Turkey, make it nine wins now

Former champions Germany continued their impressive run in the qualifiers for the 2012 European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine. They won 3-1 away to Turkey to score their ninth win in the qualifiers to now stand at 27 points with a chance to maintain an all win qualifying campaign next Tuesday against Belgium, something which no team has achieved so far in the history of the tournament.

At the Turk Telekom Arena, the new home of Galatasaray in the European part of Istanbul, a loud Turkish home crowd edged their team on knowing that points from this vital game were important in the quest to reach the playoffs.

Turkey made a good start with captain Hamit Altintop testing Manuel Neuer in only the fifth minute in a match-up of two Gelsenkirchen born players with Neuer making a sensational save. Thereafter it was a match often played in the midfield with Germany using their superior passing game and tactical knowledge to outwit the Turks. The Germans went ahead in the 35th minute when a Neuer long-throw reached Thomas Müller on the right wing, he crossed the ball across to Mario Gomez who rather easily beat Turkish defender Servet Cetin and then placed the ball into the far corner of the net. It stayed 1-0 for Germany at the break.

After the break Germany had more of the ball as they took full control of the proceedings, while Turkey had only one real chance as striker Burak Yilmaz broke free with Jerome Boateng chasing him down for a corner. Germany doubled the lead in the 66th minute through a perfect counter-attack following a Turkey corner with Neuer's perfect long-ball reaching Mario Götze, who squares the ball into the middle for an onrushing Thomas Müller, who is there to place the ball into the net. The match came to live for a few minutes when Berlin-born Hakan Balta reduced the deficit in the 79th minute, but Germany never looked like dropping points on the night. Germany were awarded a penalty when Gökhan Gönül brought down Thomas Müller and Bastian Schweinsteiger stepped-up to make it 3-1 in the 86th minute.

With another win Germany have now won nine out of nine to move towards a historic first, winning all qualification matches for a European Championship. They now only need to beat Belgium on Tuesday, October 11 in Düsseldorf to achieve that record.


MATCH STATS

Turkey 1-3 (0-1) Germany - Goals: 0-1 Mario Gomez (35'), 0-2 Thomas Müller (66'), 1-2 Hakan Balta (79'), 1-3 Bastian Schweinsteiger (86' pen)

Turkey
Volkan Demirel; 7-Gökhan Gönül, 2-Servet Cetin, 19-Egemen Korkmaz, 3-Hakan Balta; 15-Mehmet Aurelio (86' 9-Umut Bulut), 8-Selcuk Inan (46' 20-Gökhan Töre); 6-Hamit Altintop [C], 14-Arda Turan (70' 18-Kazim Kazim), 21-Sabri Sarioglu; 17-Burak Yilmaz
Unused Substitutes: 12-Sinan Bolat, 4-Gökhan Zan, 5-Emre Belözoglu, 16-Mehmet Topal

Germany
1-Manuel Neuer; 20-Jerome Boateng (73' 3-Benedikt Höwedes), 17-Per Mertesacker, 14-Holger Badstuber, 16-Philipp Lahm [C]; 7-Bastian Schweinsteiger, 6-Sami Khedira; 13-Thomas Müller, 19-Mario Götze (90' 21-Marco Reus), 10-Lukas Podolski (62' 9-André Schürrle); 23-Mario Gomez
Unused Substitutes: 12-Tim Wiese, 2-Simon Rolfes, 5-Mats Hummels, 18-Cacau

Referee
Martin Atkinson (England)