A second of Mert Günok brilliance sparked celebrations for Turkish followers and an enormous exclamation from Austria rival Michael Gregoritsch, who described it as top-of-the-line saves he’d ever seen.
Goalkeeper Günok pulled off one of many saves of the European Championship deep into damage time on Tuesday to safe Türkiye’s place within the quarterfinals.
He leaped instinctively right into a full-stretch dive to his proper to palm away a close-range header from Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner 4 minutes into stoppage time, preserving his workforce’s 2-1 win and stopping the round-of-16 match from going into additional time.
“I think that’s one of the best saves I’ve ever seen live on the field,” Gregoritsch said. “You have to offer credit score to the Turkish goalkeeper as a result of I believe it was extraordinarily tough to cease. Unbelievable, actually.”
Austria coach Ralf Rangnick was requested if the aim reminded him of England goalkeeper Gordon Banks’ well-known cease to disclaim Pele on the 1970 World Cup.
“True,” he replied.
Later, Rangnick rued the save, saying he was certain that if the ball had gone in, Austria would have received the match.
“With Gordon Banks in aim, that was the final likelihood that we had,” the German coach mentioned.
It was Günok’s fourth huge save of the sport, together with a one-on-one state of affairs towards Marko Arnautovic.
It meant Merih Demiral’s two objectives have been sufficient to ship Türkiye by means of to a quarterfinal towards the Netherlands in Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Saturday.
Source: www.dailysabah.com