England's embattled footballers arrived in Turkey on Thursday for today's decisive Euro 2004 qualifier against the World Cup semifinalists.
The England squad, including captain David Beckham, flew in to Istanbul airport, leaving behind a storm of criticism over their threat to boycott the fixture.
British newspapers were vociferous in their condemnation of the players, who had voted to go on strike after defender Rio Ferdinand was omitted from the squad after he failed to attend a drugs test last month.
PHOTO: AFP
They reversed their decision on Wednesday after a day of tense talks at their training base.
On arrival in Istanbul, a group of around 100 Turkish fans chanted: "This is Turkey. There is no way out," as the players emerged from the airport while police linked hands to prevent any confrontations.
The tightest security was reserved for Beckham, whose arrival was greeted with a mixture of cheering and booing.
His bodyguards blocked a young girl seeking an autograph from approaching the midfielder but Beckham later relented and she was brought over to the England team coach to meet him.
Student Mehmet Sen, 21, brought a bouquet of red and white flowers to give to the England squad.
"I have brought these flowers to show the English they have nothing to fear and that the game should be played in a gentlemanly fashion," he said.
Security concerns have raised the stakes after a history of trouble between fans from the two countries. England have warned their supporters to stay away for fear that more crowd trouble could lead to a UEFA ban.
Turkish passport officials earlier turned back two England fans who were apparently hoping to see the game. It was not clear whether they were on a list of more than 1,000 known troublemakers provided to local authorities by British police.
Fearing any UEFA sanction itself, Turkey's Football Federation has warned fans that bad behavior at the match will be punished.
The federation said police would confiscate any objects that could be used as projectiles, ranging from mobile phones and cigarette lighters to bottles and umbrellas.
England, who top Group Seven with 19 points, must avoid defeat in Istanbul to qualify automatically for next year's finals in Portugal.
Turkey must win if they are to avoid having to qualify through next month's playoffs.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
RSS