Geneva, June 16: Nihat Kahveci, Villarreal forward, scored two late goals to send Czech Republic crashing out of the group stage of Euro 2008 as Turkey scored a dramatic 3-2 victory to advance to the quarter-finals in Geneva.

The Czechs were up 2-0 just after the hour mark thanks to a first-half goal from all-time leading scorer Jan Koller and a 62nd-minute effort from midfielder Jaroslav Plasil. However Nihat's double strike in the last three minutes gave Turkey a remarkable comeback victory, after Arda Turan pulled one back 15 minutes from time. In the other Group A match Portugal, who had already secured top spot with wins from their first two games, were defeated 2-0 by co-hosts Switzerland who received some consolation through a Hakan Yakin double in Basel.

In Geneva, Petr Cech, Chelsea keeper, inexplicably dropped the ball at the feet of Nihat, who stroked it into an empty net in the 87th minute, before the striker broke clear to fire a right-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area that went in off the underside of the bar in the 89th minute.


The drama did not end there as Turkey keeper Volkan Demirel was sent off in stoppage time for pushing Koller over in an off the ball incident, with forward Tuncay Sanli taking over in goal for the dying stages.



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