Turkey’s strong showing left captain Hakan Calhanoglu with a bitter taste in his veins after his team squandered a one-goal lead against the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals on Saturday to exit the tournament.
In front of a raucous crowd of Turkish fans at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Turkey took the lead in the first half through Samet Akaydin, but a header from Stefan de Vrij and an own goal from Mert Moldur breached their defence and saw the Netherlands take the lead.
“When you look at the tournament in general, teams that lead 1-0 usually go back. I don’t know why that’s the case, but it was like that for us today. We went back a lot,” Calhanoglu told reporters.
“We conceded two goals in seven minutes, which of course hurt us. In the end, we tried to try and had chances with long balls, but we couldn’t take them.
“Sometimes things like this happen in football. We need to learn from this. I’m proud of everyone.”
With Turkey set to co-host the tournament with Italy in 2032, the 30-year-old German-born Calhanoglu said his team had learned a lot that they could use to build for the future.
“As long as we are united, as long as we are together, we can achieve anything. We have always shown that,” he added.
Calhanoglu and a number of Turkish players thanked their fans, many of whom live in Germany.
“I would like to thank our country, they supported us very well. We went into the matches as if we were the home team,” said midfielder Orkun Koksu, who missed the Netherlands match through suspension.
“They were a great motivation for us. We feel sad, but in the end it was a tournament we will be proud of, and we hope to succeed in the upcoming tournaments,” he added.
