England Overcomes Beckham Penalty Miss to Qualify
Skipper David Beckham missed a first-half penalty but England still reached the finals of Euro 2004 Saturday after drawing 0-0 with Turkey to win Group Seven.
Skipper David Beckham missed a first-half penalty but England still reached the finals of Euro 2004 Saturday after drawing 0-0 with Turkey to win Group Seven.
England, which had gone into the game just three days after avoiding an unprecedented player boycott, got the draw which it needed to qualify and send Turkey into the playoffs before a passionate pro-Turkey crowd.
England also missed a string of scoring chances, including the 37th minute spot kick ballooned into the crowd by Beckham, who lost his footing as he struck the ball.
The England skipper also found the net with a late header that was ruled offside.
Turkey, beaten 2-0 by England at Sunderland in April in a qualifier marred by crowd trouble, fell well short of the fluid attacking form which took it to the World Cup semifinals.
England had no vocal support inside the ground, with the FA having refused its ticket allocation and urged fans to stay away, amid fears for crowd safety and a potential exclusion from the tournament by UEFA. Yet the visitors, missing injured striker Michael Owen and defender Rio Ferdinand who was dropped from the squad for failing to take a drug test, settled more quickly than their hosts, whose big-match nerves showed in a series of misdirected passes.
A header over the bar by Paul Scholes roused both sides to trade chances for Nihat Kahveci and Emre Belozoglu, both stopped by David James, and a breakaway for Wayne Rooney after a superb long ball by Beckham.
Turkey then tightened its grip and England was pinned back the final third when the penalty came -- Tugay Kerimoglu, who plays for Blackburn Rovers in the English premier league, tripping Steven Gerrard.
Beckham, who had converted a pressure penalty at the 2002 World Cup to beat Argentina 1-0, this time slipped as he skied the ball high into the upper tier of the stands.
Alpay Ozalan was quick to taunt the England skipper and also poked him in the face as the two men walked off at the break.
That led to a melee in the tunnel with Italian referee Pierluigi Collina calling the captains to his room during the halftime break and telling them to calm their teammates down.
Turkey kept up the pressure after the re-start and Sukur thought he had a penalty when he sprawled in the box, though Collina was not impressed. England survived yet another goalmouth scramble after Turkey coach Senol Gunes threw on young striker Tuncay Sanli, while substitute Kieron Dyer provided the cross for Beckham's would-be match winner.
Nihat nearly claimed that, though, in the closing minutes with two barreling drives that flashed past James' post -- England's fright of the night.
UEFA's warning over England's fans had followed that 2-0 win over Turkey that witnessed 95 arrests outside the ground, pitch invasions and racist chants by England fans.
The tumultuous build-up to the game at Fenerbahce's stadium also included a strike threat to try and force the re-instatement of defender Ferdinand after he missed a routine drug test at his club Manchester United.
Vilified then by sections of the press, England should return to very different treatment Sunday after chalking up its ninth successive match without defeat.