Euro 2008 - Mystic Matthaeus: Croatia v Turkey

Eurosport - Fri, 20 Jun 23:05:00 2008

Former Germany captain and Eurosport's expert pundit Lothar Matthaeus turns his attention to Croatia's quarter-final with Turkey.

FOOTBALL 2008 Euro 2008 Croatia fans supporters - 0

Matthaeus, a World Cup winner with West Germany in 1990 and the most capped German player of all time, will be giving us his thoughts on every game throughout the three-week long tournament.

And he is certainly well placed to do so - as well as featuring at five World Cups, the former World and European Player of the Year has appeared at four European Championships, winning one, in 1980.

The Germany legend envisages a waltz into the semi-finals for Croatia in Vienna.

Lothar says: Croatia 2-0 Turkey

"Congratulations to Turkey to reach the quarterfinals with nice football, but the Croatians have not only convinced me in this tournament, they were also very strong in the qualification. The mix between young, talented players and older, experienced players works and the connection with the coach is outstanding. Such things lift not only the team, but the whole country and the fans and that's why Croatia will win the game against Turkey."

Misses next match if booked: Croatia - Robert Kovac, Luka Modric, Darijo Srna, Jerko Leko, Josip Simunic, Hrvoje Vejic and Ognjen Vukojevic; Turkey - Gokhan Zan, Colin Kazim-Richards, Sabri Saroglu, Tuncay Sanli, Hakan Balta, Mehmet Topal, Arda Turan and Emre Asik.

Key stats: Both sides are competing in the quarter-finals of the European Championship for the second time. Croatia were beaten 2-1 in the last eight of Euro 96 by eventual winners Germany thanks to goals from Juergen Klinsmann and Matthias Sammer. Turkey lost 2-0 to Portugal at the same stage of Euro 2000.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic played for his country in the first meeting between the two sides, a 1-0 victory against a Turkey team managed by current coach Fatih Terim in the group stage at Euro 96.

Previous meetings:

11.06.1996 ECF Nottingham Croatia 1 Turkey 0

12.06.1997 Fr Sendai Croatia 1 Turkey 1

31.03.2004 Fr Zagreb Croatia 2 Turkey 2

Eurosport

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  1. MATTHAEUS!!! QUIT BEFORE YOU EMBARRASS YOURSELF ANY FURTHER

    From devil_88, on Mon 23 Jun 1:21PM

  2. I LOVE TURKEY... TURKEY-1 GERMANY-0 (GOAL:SEMIH SENTURK)90+3

    From sadik2apo, on Mon 23 Jun 8:16AM

  3. TURKS ARE BEST EVER.... COME ON GERMANY THAT IS UR TURN... ZUAHAHHAHAHAH

    From sadik2apo, on Mon 23 Jun 8:14AM

  4. @#$% everyone that has said anything about the Croatians we killed you on the field you were never ever close to score not once...we had about 4 chancesn you got lucky we all know the ref. fucked us over by adding 2 minutes on the 2nd half watch the game again and yull see what Im talking we won that game 1-0 n if we hadnt missed n scored the final score would have been 4-2 for the CROATIANz n the coach is not arrogant he has never said anything about croatia being the best we are always the underdogs....we finished first in the qualifiers for the euro08 n 1st in our group...yall tirkish @#$% are the most luckiest prick in the world n the funny part is you all know it!!!!!!!!!

    From dskuflic, on Sun 22 Jun 5:17AM

  5. lothar must shut the f.ck up. he never guessed right.

    From ABUZER H, on Sat 21 Jun 8:51AM

  6. What an expert? After so many false predictions (they were his wishes) he must be astonished and quit the job. He is not an expert, he was only a good player. WE HOPE FROM HİM TO SAY" GERMANY WILL BEAT TURKEY" come on Lothar! PLEASSSSEE:)

    From emre a, on Sat 21 Jun 7:32AM

  7. lothar, hows relationship with klinsmann, thomas helmer, uli hoeness n mehmet scholl, do u still hate them?

    From shokaku12, on Sat 21 Jun 2:37AM

  8. Lothar was a great player, but he is very bad at this "Mystic" bussines :D

    From RisingStar, on Sat 21 Jun 2:23AM

  9. Lothar, You gotta be happy since there is only 5 games left for you to screw up the predictions :))) come on, at least do not tend to predict any Turkish match..otherwise you will be left with nothing but a screwer :)

    From elgun1903, on Sat 21 Jun 1:40AM

  10. I LOVE U TURKEY!!!!!!√V”^√~√V^√ V’^~~√V”^√~√V^√V’^~--- -- GO HOME CROATIA

    From archon_jb, on Sat 21 Jun 1:11AM

  11. A quick response for Squish Squish's messages below:
    "How do you spot a Croatian athlete at a sporting event?"
    Well, they are the ones outperforming everyone else at racing to the airport to go back home. I guess their"genetic and divine disposition" didn't take them very far, did it? Or maybe it was their mother's milk; Tell' ya what: try their father's milk for a change and see what happens...
    As for those hot women, why do they have to kill any soccer superstar with their bare hands? Don't they have mouths ? I guess they don't have to rush back home as fast as the super athletes, they should stay and use their labias and clitorises to pay some debts to the Turks and the rest of Europe, how's that?

    From Cris T, on Sat 21 Jun 12:10AM

  12. TURKS ARE GREAT!

    From Salim Y, on Fri 20 Jun 11:12PM

  13. What happened is that those arrogant croations are going home!!! For a country that has never won anything... they make it like they win every tournament… You never won anything and never will!!! Congrats Turkey!!!

    From jsommer88, on Fri 20 Jun 10:57PM

  14. hahahahahaa what happened haa..? soo we can say turkey is the besttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

    From hasan.mandirali, on Fri 20 Jun 10:54PM

  15. What a game... I'm a German die heart fan and would of loved to have gotten revenge on the croats but am I glad that Turkey just BEAT YOUR REAR... I HATE your coach and his arrogance to think that croatia is the best team in Europe and the World and to keep saying that the croatian players are the best in the world!!! EAT THIS… Go Germany!!!

    From jsommer88, on Fri 20 Jun 10:37PM

  16. Congratulations Turkey. Good Luck against Germany :)

    From d3vil_m4y_cry2003, on Fri 20 Jun 10:35PM

  17. Turky...haha...CROATIA the best...

    From dajanamrdenovic@ymail.com, on Fri 20 Jun 8:40PM

  18. cause he loves Isr, he had other offers, but he choose Netanya. Be happy! c u in stadion.

    From timea_gobert, on Fri 20 Jun 8:18PM

  19. Croatia to go through! Hot women is enough reason.

    From beyondvision8, on Fri 20 Jun 7:51PM

  20. Lothar has been my favourite since WC86. I like and respect him very much as a player but not as a manager or commentator..I think he was a good player but sorry to say he is a poor manager and (probably) the worst commentator..

    From taat100, on Fri 20 Jun 7:45PM
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