Sam Curtis strikes late to secure huge win for Ireland U21s in Turkey
MATCH WINNER: Sam Curtis in action against Livan Burcu of Turkey. Pic: Gokhan Kilincer/Sportsfile
Sam Curtis’ late finish earned the Republic of Ireland a huge three points in their bid to reach the U21 European Championship as they defeated Turkey in Istanbul on Friday night.
With just six minutes remaining, the defender expertly slotted the ball past the keeper when bearing down on goal to ensure Ireland remain second in Group A and just two points behind Italy ahead of their game against Latvia in Tallaght on Tuesday.
"I think it's huge," said Curtis.
"In the latter stages of the game it could've gone either way. It's hard here, their fans were great and Turkey are a great team but we just had that fighting spirit in us and we always knew we would get a chance. It's a huge win and it could prove to be vital at the end of the campaign."
It’s almost a year to the day since these two sides played out a five-goal thriller at Turner’s Cross on the opening night of the qualifiers, which Ireland won thanks to Aidomo Emakhu’s goal deep into injury time.
The first half here certainly wasn’t as entertaining as that encounter in Cork, likely to the delight of manager Jim Crawford, who set his troops up in a 5-4-1 formation in a bid to nullify the threat of their opponents.
It worked well in the first 45 as they restricted the Turks to strikes from distance, although Fenerbahçe’s Ugur Yildiz stung the palms of Ireland goalkeeper Josh Keeley shortly before he sent an effort from 40 or so yards dipping just over the crossbar.
His club manager Jose Mourinho surely would have been impressed had either of those shots went in.
Ireland defended resiliently but the closest they came to snatching the lead fell to Sinclair Armstrong but his header from Matt Healy’s free kick drifted harmlessly wide of the back post.
The better option, which he may have been trying, would have been to head the ball back across the face of goal to where a couple of his teammates were positioned.
Armstrong called the Turkish keeper into action at the beginning of the second period but after he burst away from his marker, his low shot from a tight angle was easily dealt with.
Turkey were dealt a huge blow when their captain and star centre-back Serdar Saatci limped off with an injury in the 65th minute.
And the visitors almost immediately took full advantage but after good work from Andy Moran, Emakhu blasted his attempt from the edge of the penalty area just over the bar.
The young Boys in Green thought they had got the goal their performance now deserved in the 79th minute when Sean Roughan fired home from close-range after Joe Hodge’s initial effort was saved but their celebrations were rightly cut short by the linesman’s flag.
It mattered little though as in the 84th minute Hodge released Sam Curtis and he coolly rolled the ball past the keeper when through one on one for what proved to be the winner.
"Great assist, great assist. Our agent will be buzzing with that," joked Curtis.
The Irish survived a late scare as substitute Metehan Altunbas turned the ball against the near post but they hung on to what could prove to be a huge three points.
Emre Bilgin; Ugur Yildiz, Taha Altikardes (Metehan Altunbas 80), Serdar Saatci (Hamza Gureler 65), Yasin Ozcan; Yunus Konak (Ali Akman 71), Metehan Baltaci; Cihan Canak (Burak Ince 71), Bartug Elmaz, Livan Burcu (Basar Onal 62); Mustafa Hekimoglu.
Keeley; Curtis, O’Riordan, Abankwah, Roughan, Garcia MacNulty; Moran, Hodge, Healy, Emakhu (Adeeko 68); Armstrong (O’Mahony 77).
Amine Kourgheli (Belarus).
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