Euro 2024: Turkey’s Samet Akaydin gifts Portugal with an own goal to double their lead

Portugal are currently cruising past Turkey in Euro 2024 Group F with a 2-0 second-half lead.

Bernardo Silva opened the scoring with the first goal of the tournament in the 21st minute and Portugal doubled the lead seven minutes later after a miscommunication between the Turkish defense.

João Cancelo intercepted a header in midfield and made a quick exchange with Bruno Fernandes to advance the ball into the Türkiye box. When breaking the field with Cristiano Ronaldo trying to run, Cancelo misinterpreted and made a pass to no one, turning with four Türkiye players around the ball.

While Portugal’s players reacted to the bad decision, and Ronaldo did so in a lively manner, Türkiye’s Samet Akaydin tried to return the ball to goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, who was not expecting the pass.

Disaster happened and it was 2-0 Portugal.

That was the Euros’ sixth own goal in just over a week of action. This would represent the tournament lead over the two goals scored by Slovakian Ivan Schranz and German Jamal Musiala.

Fernandes would tap in a Ronaldo pass to make it 2-0 in the 56th minute to put Portugal 3-0 ahead.

If Portugal manages to win, they will improve to 2-0-0 and secure a place in the round of 16. The last game will be on Wednesday, against Georgia. Türkiye would remain with 3 points in the last game against the Czech Republic.

Türkiye would then need to beat the Czech Republic or see Georgia lose or draw with Portugal to guarantee passage to the knockout stages of the Euros for just the third time.