Demiral made a Grey Wolves salute when celebrating one of his goals. Bozkurtlar are the paramilitary of the Turkish ultranationalist and neo-fascist MHP. Wonder if UEFA have the bollocks to hand him a hefty ban and fine for making political gestures.
It isn't being wise after the event, it's something I've thought for a long time. I think it is rare in any major tournament for a team to play well in every game and go on to lift the trophy. Maybe Brazil in 1970? I can only remember 2 of their games from that competition - the 1-0 win over England and the 4-1 final victory. Did France do so in 98? Spain in 2008? I can't remember all of the dates, but I do remember the following happening 1) Argentina winning the WC after losing their opening game 2) Spain doing the same 3) Portugal drawing their way to the Euro's final and winning a dour final 1-0 (2016?) 4) Germany starting the WC they hosted (2014) like an express train, but running out of steam in the SF 5) Netherlands beating Spain 5-0 in a group game, but then losing in the QF 6) Russia winning the opening game of 2018 5-0 and everyone saying how great they looked 7) Italy playing anti football for years and often getting deep into tournaments - particularly USA 94 where they only lost the final on pens. So for me it's always a case of beware the slow starters. In the current competition we now have a situation where the best 2 looking remaining sides (Spain and Germany IMO) play each other. And so while one of them will go out, the two poorest looking remaining sides England and France (IMO) could both find themselves through to the SF. it's not how you start a competition...
Italy ‘94 lost one of the worst Finals I’ve seen to the worst Brazil team I’ve seen. It’s the only time I’ve wanted Italy to win!
Argentina lost to Cameroon in Italia 1990 in the opening game....It was some battle...They never did find Canigga's boot!!....Still made it to the final. They lost to Saudi in 2022. Won it. Spain lost to Switzerland 0-1 in WC 2010 in their opening game...Won it. Italy should have been knocked out in the WC1982 in the group stage when a perfectly good goal by Cameroon was chalked off....They went on to win. England played a drab 0-0 vs Uruguay in opening game of 1966, went on to win it. On the other hand Brazil looked unbeatable in 1982....Didn't get to the semi's. 1982...Germany lost to Tunisia, still made it to the final..
It is true that wolves symbol used by Bozkurts but you can even find it in 10th century miniatures of Turks, so it is also a cultural symbol too. Situation is a bit like flemish lion and "schild en vriend" which became symbol of Flemish right wing for seperatism but also reprents cultural side of them. It is not like "Heil Hitler" symbol basically. German interior minister asked for sanctions already: One fact: This can turn very ugly in Germany, because German Turks who are 5%-6% of entire pop are known to be supporter of socialist party of her, since they are migrated as mainly factory workers. I won't do any further comment to stay away from politics discussion after mentioning above fact, but the problemitself is both politics and football now.
I was at that match, ****ing crap but Whitney Houston was brilliant in the pregame. That said, the 1990 final was ****ing awful too but at least we were put out of our misery in normal time, if I remember correctly.
Demiral banned for 2 games. Turkey - Netherlands will be a very fun game now, since Turks are riled up because ban is literally requested by German interior minister. Good luck to German police containing 50K fans especially after a defeat.
Shouldn’t be a problem as all problems are down to boozy English fans. Or so our media constantly tell us.
