But it was not to be, as the Turkish U-21s froze on the big occasion and were beaten 3-1 by Switzerland, a result that has badly dented Turkey’s hopes and put the Swiss firmly in the driver’s seat. The Swiss now lead the Turks by four points, though Turkey has a game in hand.The writing was already on the wall after only seven minutes, when 20-year-old FC Basel midfielder Valentin Stocker, capitalizing on a horrendous mistake by 21-year-old Fenerbahçe second-choice goalkeeper Volkan Babacan, headed the ball into a wide empty net.
Stocker was again on target in the 43rd, slotting the ball in after another goalkeeping blunder by Volkan to double the score for the Swiss.
Turkey coach Hami Mandıralı brought in Denizlispor keeper Cenk Gönen in the second half to replace error-prone Volkan, and Galatasaray leftie Caner Erkin gave the Turks a glimmer of hope six minutes into the half when he scored with a cracker of a shot to reduce the tally to 2-1.
Thereafter the Turks threw everything they had at the Swiss but squandered several glaring chances. And 21-year-old Yugoslavia-born AC Bellinzona midfielder Shkelzen Gashi put the game beyond reach when he scored for the Swiss from a swift counterattack.
The Turks will now try to make amends for this defeat when they entertain Estonia at the Yeni Rize Stadium on Wednesday, while leader Switzerland will host Georgia that same day.
“There is no justice in soccer,” Hami said after the match. “If we had converted the chances that we had, we could have won by a hatful of goals. You have to score to win, but we couldn’t score more goals and therefore lost. This match is over, so we must now focus all our attention on the match against Estonia on Wednesday,” he added.
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