Captain Tuncay Sanli turned in a man of the match performance to see Turkey storm to a 4-2 victory over Estonia and keep up some slim hope of bagging a playoff position for World Cup 2010.
Turkey went into the match in third place in Europe Group 5, 4 points off second place Bosnia-Herzegovina and a distant 10 points behind leaders Spain. The group has long been about the race for second place and Turkey went into the match at the Kadir Has Stadium knowing only a victory would do.
The home crowd was given a shock when on 7 minutes Estonia took the lead through Vladimir Voskoboinikov. Tuncay levelled the scores 20 minutes later, with Sercan Yildirim adding a second 8 minutes from half time.
Turkey were the dictating the play but were unable to put Estonia away and on 52 minutes Konstantin Vassiljev equalised. It appeared Turkey were losing their grip on any chance of second place, and this was transmitted to the crowd. It took a goal from Arda Turan ten minutes later and another goal from Tuncay in the 72nd minute to relieve the pressure in the stadium and put a slight gloss on the Turkish performance.
The result keeps Turkey 4 points behind Bosnia with 3 games to play after the Bosnians kept up their impressive form beating Armenia 2-0 away from home.
The crunch game now occurs on Wednesday evening in Zenica when Turkey travel to Bosnia. A win for Bosnia would surely cement secnd place and consign the Turkish players to a quiet 2010 summer. A win for Turkey would put them 1 pint behind Bosnia with Bosnia having the tougher run in by hosting Spain in their last match.
Turkey celebrate
