Turkey coach Fatih Terim faces an anxious wait to see what sort of team he will be able to put out in their Euro 2008 semi-final against Germany with injuries and suspensions decimating his squad.
Terim went into Friday's quarter-final against Croatia in Vienna with just 15 outfield players and with eight of his starting XI on a yellow card.
Three of those eight - Tuncay Sanli, Arda Turan and Emre Asik - duly picked up bookings during the match and will be suspended for Wednesday's semi, while there is also a fitness question mark against captain and talisman Nihat Kahveci.
The Villarreal striker was unable to finish the match after sustaining what looked like a groin injury, and Turkey should find out in the next few days how serious the problem is and whether he will be able to face the Germans.
‘I haven't been able to do any damage assessment yet and I have to go back to hotel and see what damage there is to the team,’ said Terim following his side's penalty shoot-out victory.
‘We have injured players and suspended players, so we will have to see about all that.’
Turkey have made a habit of claiming comeback victories during Euro 2008, having fought back from deficits to beat both Switzerland and Czech Republic in the group stages.
Against the Swiss, Turkey trailed at half-time and only snatched a 2-1 win thanks to Arda Turan's injury-time strike, while the Czech match was even more dramatic with Terim's men scoring three times in the last 15 minutes to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win.
Friday's quarter-final success was arguably more dramatic still, with Turkey looking dead-and-buried when Ivan Klasnic headed Croatia ahead in the 119th minute of extra-time.
But Turkey rallied and Semih Senturk's goal deep into injury time at the end of the game sent the contest to penalties, where Terim's men won 3-1.
‘This is a team that is two years old basically, and I think that we have worked very hard in last two years and we deserved to be in the semi-final,’ he said.
‘If Croatia had won I would have said they deserved to win, but we won and that's football.’
Terim added: ‘I tell my players never to give up, and I tell them they should not be afraid of losing.
‘They should not be afraid of conceding goals and they should never give up until the final whistle.
‘If only we could have all the injured players back in the team, but even without them we are still being successful.’
Terim hopes the Turkish fans will enjoy the victory, but he also called on them to be sensible in their celebrations.
Following their win over the Czechs, a young girl was injured in Turkey and taken to intensive care when shots were fired in the air.
‘I hope the people in Turkey will enjoy it. No victory is worth the life of another person. I want to ask the Turkish people to enjoy themselves but not hurt anyone else while they are doing it,’ Terim said.
