the Dutch is only in the lead thanks to the result at Turkey

Friday, October 8, 2021 at 10:40 PM• Mart van Mourik • Last update: 22:51

Turkey and Norway balanced each other on Friday evening. The World Cup qualifier in Group G ended in a 1-1 draw. It was the debut game for national coach Stefan Kuntz, who did not include Orkun Kökçü in the match selection and left Halil Dervisoglu on the bench. The team of national coach Stäle Solbakken was missing, among other things, the injured Erling Braut Haaland. Next Monday, the Norwegians will play at home against Montenegro, while Turkey will visit Latvia. The the Dutch squad leads the group with sixteen points, in which Norway (fourteen points) is second and the Ay-Yildizlilar (twelve points) complete the top three.

Turkey opened the score before the end of the seventh minute of play. Just before his own sixteen-meter area, Andreas Hanche-Olsen let himself be trumped by the chasing Cengiz Ünder. The latter rushed into the box and put the ball wide on Kerem Aktürkoglu, who was able to tap in from close range: 1-0. In the twentieth minute, the Norwegians were able to come up with an answer for the first time. Both Kristian Thorstvedt and Mohamed Elyounoussi tried to tie the score, but in both cases goalkeeper Ugurcan Çakir saved. Three minutes later, the Turks got away again, when Morten Thorsby hit the outside of the post with a well-placed shot.

On the other side, Aktürkoglu had a good opportunity to score his second goal; his shot from the left, however, went just wide. Norway tied the score three minutes before the halftime signal. After a short corner on the left side of the field, Jens Petter Hauge gave Hanche-Olsen a cross, who headed the ball towards Thorstvedt. The striker got the leather on the edge of offside for his feet and shot in at the height of the five-meter line: 1-1. The video referee on duty still looked at the goal, but he saw no reason to intervene.

The second half was a lot messier than the first half. The game was regularly interrupted for injury treatments, causing the pace to drop. After more than an hour of play, Thorsby received a yellow card, meaning he is suspended for the game against Montenegro. In the final phase, the midfielder had a great chance to slide into the 1-2 from close by after a cross from the right wing, but Zeki Çelik was able to clear it just in time. Yusuf Yazici created space on the other side for a shot; the attempt that followed, however, went over the top. In the last minute, Elyounoussi missed a huge header opportunity to take the win.