Denizli rues penalty miss

Vitor Baia keeps Turkey at bay with penalty save

Turkish coach Mustafa Denizli has admitted his side's first-half penalty miss proved costly as they blew their chance of making the semi-finals of Euro 2000.

"If we hadn't missed the penalty, the situation could have been quite different," he said.

Arif Erdem's spot kick was fired straight at Portuguese keeper Vitor Baia with the score at 1-0.

Portugal went on to win the game 2-0 and book their place in the last four.

No comment

Denizli made no comment about the sending off of Turkish defender Alpay Ozalan after 29 minutes but said he thought Portugal's Fernando Couto, who gave away the penalty, should also have seen a red card.

"I believe that Couto should have been sent off but I think the referee didn't see the incident properly," said Denizli.

Denizli: Couto should have been sent off

"Once we had a player sent off, it became very difficult for us. Alpay had not received any card in his last 15 games.

"The Portuguese team is one of the best in the world and after Alpay was dismissed we were at a serious disadvantage.

"But, after struggling in this tournament, qualifying for the quarter-finals was a good achievenent for us. But we saw we still have a lot of things to learn."