Güler strikes, Belgium answer
Arda Güler gave Izmir something to roar about. Twenty minutes in, the Real Madrid playmaker bent a direct free kick out of Senne Lammens’ reach and the Gürsel Aksel Stadium shook. It lasted seven minutes.
Jérémy Doku went to work down the left, beat his man and picked out his old Manchester City team-mate Kevin De Bruyne, who finished first time. Three minutes after that, Ugurcan Cakir could only parry a Diego Moreira shot and Charles De Ketelaere was there to tap in the rebound. Belgium led 2-1 at the break. Nobody scored again.
The second half was slower. Cakir got a strong hand to a De Ketelaere effort on the hour, Lammens flew to keep out Deniz Gül with eight minutes left, and Güler hit the turf in the box after a long solo run without getting the penalty the crowd screamed for. Mark van Bommel’s side managed the rest without fuss.
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Five games, five defeats
For Turkey, the night only confirmed what the table had been saying for weeks. Sergen Yalçin’s team have lost all five of their League A group games and conceded 13 goals along the way. Still on zero points with one round left, they can no longer get off the bottom. Next season they play in League B.
Before kick-off the stadium held a minute’s silence for the 18 people killed on Monday in an explosion at a steel plant in Aliaga, around 60 kilometres north of Izmir.
France made to wait
The result travels well beyond Izmir. Belgium move to nine points, provisionally second, one behind France. A Turkish win or a draw would have sent Zinédine Zidane’s side into the quarter-finals before they even kicked a ball at San Siro tonight. Instead, the job is still open. Italy first, then Turkey in France on Sunday.
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