Wales hopes hang by a thread after Morrell sees red in Turkey defeat
After hanging in this game valiantly with 10 men for so long, for Wales how, in unforgiving surroundings, this quickly unravelled into another thoroughly demoralising evening.
Turkey had a goal disallowed either side of Danny Ward superbly denying Hakan Calhanoglu from the penalty spot midway through the second half but the hosts eventually got on the scoreboard legitimately via a smart header by the substitute Umut Nayir on 72 minutes. Then came a second, courtesy of another substitute, a wonderful bending effort from 25 yards by Arda Guler, the highly-rated 18-yearold Fenerbahce forward. Suddenly, that was that.
Other adjectives would probably spring to mind for Wales, who played more than 60 minutes with 10 men after Joe Morrell was given a straight red card. Ward looked like being the hero for Wales after keeping out Calhanoglu’s spot-kick, awarded after Aaron Ramsey was harshly penalised for handball, low down to his right, but Turkey did not relent.
Nayir, who had a goal disallowed for handball three minutes earlier, towered above Chris Mepham and his header was too powerful for Ward, whose right hand could not prevent the ball nestling in the corner after it kissed a post. At the halfway stage of this qualifying campaign, Wales are fourth in Group D, behind Turkey, who return top, Armenia and Croatia.
Wales’s hopes of reaching Euro 2024 look precarious at best, which is why their manager, Rob Page, admitted his team probably need to take maximum points from all four remaining games to have any hope of reaching Germany next summer. Wales travel to Latvia in September before hosting Croatia a month later.
“We’ve got to win every game now to give ourselves a chance, that’s got to be the mentality,” the Wales manager said. “It has been a frustrating camp but there have been so many lessons to learn.”
Costly ones at that. Kieffer Moore missed this match through suspension after a petulant kick on the Armenia goalkeeper on Friday and Morrell was dismissed for a naive, high challenge on Turkey’s lively left-back, Ferdi Kadioglu.
Wales had to contend with a supercharged atmosphere and a partisan crowd made their feelings plain after Morrell caught the full-back. Turkey’s substitutes poured from the bench into the technical area in tandem.
Page sought a reaction from his squad but it was always an uphill task from that point. “Even with 11 players it was going to be a big ask but before the sending-off I thought we matched them,” he said.
Wales’s last trip to Turkey, in Istanbul for a 1998 World Cup qualifier 26 years ago, began with bricks being thrown at the team bus before the players emerged for the warmup protected by a blanket of riot shields and culminated in a topsy-turvy 6-4 defeat.
Wales arrived in Samsun, on the Black Sea, having taken their fair share of pelters following an embarrassing defeat by Armenia, even if it was only their first defeat in a home European Championship qualifier for 12 years.
Turkey understandably dominated possession but in the second half seemed weighed down by the pressure of the numerical advantage. There were, then, a few gasps among an increasingly restless home crowd as Wales went close to scoring a shock opener.
Dan James skated upfield and was crudely taken out by Merih Demiral more than 35 yards from the Turkey goal. Harry Wilson stood over the ball and sent a superb left-foot free-kick arcing towards the top corner, only for Turkey’s goalkeeper, Mert Gunok, to claw the ball to safety.
Turkey jeered any time Wales got anywhere near their 18-yard area but all the drama came inside the Wales box. Calhanoglu failed to take advantage from the penalty spot and then Nayir’s close-range finish was chalked off after another VAR review.
At that point Wales could be forgiven for thinking they were going to secure an unlikely point against all odds, only for Nayir and Guler to ensure otherwise.