BASEL, Switzerland – In one of the wilder finishes of an unpredictable European Championship, it figures that a player struggling to find his game would score the winner.
Philipp Lahm ended Turkey's storybook run in the tournament yesterday with a late goal in a 3-2 semifinal victory that kept Germany on target for a record fourth title.
A stunning conclusion that many people around the world did not see because the international TV feed went out had Lahm eliminating the surprising Turks off a give-and-go with Thomas Hitzlsperger in the 90th minute. Lahm cut in from the left, set up a passing one-two, collected the ball and shot it past Rustu Recber to unleash the joy of some 20,000 German fans at St. Jakob Park.
“It unleashed all that joy. It was my most important goal,” said Lahm, especially with it coming immediately after a major error. “In the moments leading up to 2-2, I certainly looked bad. It happens to me, too.”
With two goals in the final five minutes, the match could have gone either way, but after three stunning comeback victories in a row for Turkey, it was Germany's day.
“We have caught the winning mood and can get the title now,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said.
First, Semih Senturk kept Turkey in the game with an 86th-minute equalizer, beating Jens Lehmann at the near post.
Ugur Boral gave Turkey the lead in the 22nd, but Bastian Schweinsteiger equalized in the 26th. Miroslav Klose then scored in the 79th off a feed from Lahm to put the Germans ahead, setting up the thrilling finish.
“Totally crazy feeling,” Loew added. “It was unbelievable. It was a crazy, incredible drama with all these goals in the final minutes.”
Late in the match, a protester wearing a “Tibet is not China” shirt ran onto the field and was subdued by security officers. Earlier, two players – Simon Rolfes of Germany and Ayhan Akman – needed to have their foreheads stapled by trainers to stop bloody wounds. Neither of them finished the game and Rolfes needed six stitches over his left eye.
Germany, which won Euros in 1972, 1980 and 1996, will play the winner of today's Spain-Russia semifinal in Vienna, Austria. Sunday's final game also will be in Vienna.
For Turkey, it was the end of a tremendous tournament, its best since making the World Cup semifinals six years ago.
“It showed the world what a good team we are. We are leaving as the most colorful team,” coach Fatih Terim said. “We just fell short of the final.”
ESPN cut back to its studio analysts during the TV outages and showed video of spectators watching at a Fan Zone in Basel.
Germany's ZDF television wound up using a Swiss feed to televise the latter portions of the match after having to do a radio-style play-by-play when the picture went out. A violent thunderstorm that hit Vienna, where the TV broadcast center is located, was blamed.
UEFA officials said the signal initially went down for six minutes in the 76th minute of the match, then “there were a couple of more interruptions,” said Wolfgang Eichler, a UEFA spokesman.
