Turkey captain Hakan Çalhanoglu was left with a bitter taste despite a dogged display as his side blew a one-goal lead against the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals on Saturday, sending them home out of the tournament.
In front of a raucous crowd of Turkish fans at Berlin's Olympiastadion, Turkey took a first-half lead through Samet Akaydin, but a Stefan de Vrij header and Mert Müldür own goal broke through their defence and saw the Dutch advance.
“If you look at the tournament as a whole, teams that go 1-0 up often fall behind. I don't know why, but it was the same for us today. We fell behind a lot,” Çalhanoglu told reporters.
“We conceded two goals in seven minutes, which hurt us a bit, of course. In the end we tried and we had chances with long balls, but we didn't know how to take advantage of them.”
“Sometimes things like this happen in football. We have to learn from it. I'm proud of everyone.”
With Turkey set to co-host the tournament alongside Italy in 2032, German-born Çalhanoglu, 30, said his team had learned a lot that they could use to build towards the future.
“As long as we are united, as long as we are together, we can achieve anything. We have always shown that,” he said.
Çalhanoglu and other Turkish players thanked their fans, many of whom live in Germany.
“I want to thank our country, they have supported us a lot. We have approached the matches as if we were the home team,” said midfielder Orkun Kökçü, who was suspended for the clash with the Netherlands.
“They were a great motivation for us. We are sad, but in the end it was a tournament we will be proud of. Hopefully we will be successful in the next tournaments,” he added.
