Turkey heroes enjoy a time-out
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
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Two thousand fans turned up to greet Fatih Terim's Turkey squad at their first training session since arriving at their new base just outside Vienna.
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The Turkey team arrived in Austria on Tuesday to prepare for Friday's UEFA EURO 2008™ quarter-final with Croatia and were met by 2,000 fans at their first training session.
Three miss out
With the exception of Emre Güngör, ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a calf injury, Emre Belözoğlu and Servet Çetin, the squad's 20 remaining players attended the workout at Krems, northwest of Vienna, where the fans voiced their pride in their favourites, the chant "We are proud of you" aimed at coach Fatih Terim, Hamit Altıntop and Kazım Kazım in particular.
Early finish
The first 30 minutes were devoted to stretching and recovery work. Then those players involved in the dramatic victory over the Czech Republic on Sunday left the training ground while the rest of the group took part in a light training and shooting exercise. Meanwhile, veteran keeper Rüştü Reçber, who will make his tournament debut against Croatia following Volkan Demirel's dismissal at the end of the Czech match, was involved in a special workout with goalkeeper coach Eser Özaltındere.