Turkey will play Germany in the first European football championship semi-final next week after defeating Croatia 4:2 in penalty shoot-out that followed a cagey encounter on June 20.
Both teams took nearly two hours to score in the match, and Croatia looked set to progress after Ivan Klasnic's header with one minute to go in the extra time, only for Turkey to peg it back 120 seconds later through Semih Senturk.
Croatia manager Slaven Bilic, denied the opportunity to make a substitution after Klasnic's goal, was fuming on the sidelines, while his players looked downtrodden and shocked, victory wrestled out of their grasp.
Luka Modric, who ran Croatia's midfield throughout the match, sent his shot wide, a mistake repeated by Ivan Rakitic, with Darijo Srna's penalty the only one on target. For Turkey - boosted by a late equaliser in a third straight game at Euro 2008 - Arda Turan, Senturk and Hamit Altintop all scored their spot kicks.
Mladen Petric, who had to score his penalty to keep Croatia in the running, saw his shot saved by Rustu Recber, which capped another amazing comeback for Turkey, following their late-game heroics against the Czech Republic in the last group match, and secured a first-time appearance in a European championship semi-final.
Croatia, winners of all three group stage games, will have no-one but themselves to blame for not winning the game, wasting several chances in regulation time to avoid the lottery of the penalty kicks.
Going into the match as favourites, the Croats came close to opening the scoring six minutes after the start, only for Hakan Balta to clear Ivan Rakitic's cross to Srna at the last moment.
Despite dominating the first half, the Croats had only one more scoring opportunity before the interval, Ivica Olic hitting the crossbar from Modric's cross and Niko Kranjcar heading the rebound wide.
Croatia continued to press on forward after the restart, with Rakitic, Ivica Olic and Srna missing scoring opportunities, while Turkey looked decidedly blunt on the counter-attack. In the end, Senturk's late equaliser was their clearest chance of the match and it proved just enough to knock Croatia out.
Turkey will play Germany in the first Euro 2008 semi-final on June 25 at St Jakob-Park in Basel.
