TURKEY striker Colin Kazim-Richards accused Germany of failing to adhere to the spirit of the game following his side's heartbreaking late defeat in the Euro 2008 semi-finals.
Turkey produced a superb performance in their first European Championship last-four appearance but ended up tumbling out of the tournament following a 3-2 defeat at St Jakob-Park in Basel.
Despite winning plaudits for their display, Turkey were le
ft with a bitter taste due to Philipp Lahm's 90th-minute match-winning strike for Germany.
That goal came after the London-born Kazim-Richards had gone down injured near the halfway line, and the Fenerbahce striker feels Germany should have put the ball out of play.
"I personally think they (Germany) will be a little bit upset with the goal that won the game for them," said Kazim-Richards after the match. "This whole tournament has been based around fair play and I think you saw that we did it (put the ball out) a couple of times, we've done it throughout the tournament. Although I can't say that if I was in the same position I would have done the same thing, but it would've needed to be more like a screamer – he (Lahm) had to make a pass before scoring, so it's a bit upsetting," added Kazim-Richards, who insists he was genuinely injured.
"I'm not the sort of guy to stay down if it's not something serious, I got subbed off and would've played on if I was all right," he said.
Lahm, who had been given a torrid time by Kazim-Richards and his team-mates in the first half, was reluctant to talk about the incident after the game, but pointed out he also had reason for complaint.
At the start of the second half he was blatantly brought down with the only apparent debate being whether the foul occurred inside the Turkey area or not, but Swiss referee Massimo Busacca stunned the German camp by giving nothing. Lahm said: "You can always argue about that at full-time but I was fouled close to the penalty box before, whether inside or outside I don't know. I don't want to talk about it (the late incident)."
Turkey had reached the semi-finals on the back of three thrilling matches in which they fought back from deficits to win right at the death in each one.
Those wins did not come without cost though, as injuries and suspensions robbed Turkey coach Fatih Terim of a host of players for the semi-final against Germany.
The makeshift Turkey side did their nation proud with a hugely impressive performance, but while he believes his side were the better of the two, Kazim-Richards felt the Germans had that little bit of extra know-how at the end of the game. "In the last couple of games the teams have been better than us, they've played better, and we won," he said.
"Today we were better and we lost, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Turkish player, I'm saying that because I saw the stats and our stats were much better.
"They (Germany) are very experienced, and they were more experienced than some of the Turkey players."
Turkey's next major assignment will be the World Cup qualifiers. They begin their Group 5 campaign away to Armenia on 6 September.
While Turkey's future looks bright, it also looks likely to be without the guiding hand of coach Fatih Terim who will now return to club management.
The former AC Milan and Galatasaray coach – nicknamed 'The Emperor' in Turkey – feels his players should hold their heads up high for what they achieved in the tournament, and in particular against Germany,
"I said I was proud of them, told them not to feel bad," said the 54-year-old. "These players have been here to serve their country, what they did was impressive and I wished them a lot of success for future."
The full article contains 679 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
