After hanging in the game valiantly with 10 men for so long, for Wales how this quickly unravelled into another thoroughly demoralising evening.
Turkey had a goal disallowed either side of the Wales goalkeeper 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 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. Suddenly, that was that.
Other adjectives would probably spring to mind for Wales, who played more than 55 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 with this victory, Croatia and Armenia. Wales’s hopes of reaching Euro 2024 look ominous at best.
Wales’s last trip to Turkey, in Istanbul 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 overhead. The World Cup 1998 qualifier culminated in a topsy-turvy 6-4 defeat. Wales arrived in Samsun, an outpost on the Black Sea, having taken their fair share of pelters following an embarrassing defeat by Armenia in Cardiff on Friday, even if it was only their first defeat in a home European Championship qualifier for 12 years.
Rob Page and the travelling 1,300 Wales supporters – some of whom had more arduous journeys than others – sought a reaction from his squad. With Kieffer Moore suspended, Brennan Johnson operated as a striker until being forced off injured and his club-mate Neco Williams replaced Ben Davies, who was absent following the birth of his first child.
Wales had to contend with a supercharged atmosphere and a partisan crowd made their feelings plain as Morrell made a high challenge on the lively Turkey left-back Ferdi Kadioglu. Turkey’s substitutes poured from the bench into the technical area in tandem. Morrell was dismissed and so it felt even more remarkable that Wales managed to reach the interval with the game goalless. Turkey had the ball in the net, via Mepham, after the Wales centre-back inadvertently diverted Zeki Celik’s cross past Ward. But after a long VAR check Celik was ruled offside when latching on to Merih Demiral’s incisive pass.
The disallowed goal seemed to momentarily galvanise Wales but Turkey were on the front foot and Wales struggled to stem the flow.Demiral and Celik linked again down the right and on the opposite flank Kadioglu found joy marauding forward. Abdulkerim Bardakci fed Kadioglu inside the left channel and his cutback located Kerem Akturkoglu, but the Turkey forward skied his shot over the bar.
Johnson, who rattled the side netting with Wales’s first shot on six minutes, provided the odd burst, zipping past opponents but the forward was replaced by Ben Cabango at half-time, with Dan James taking over as a false nine.
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Turkey understandably dominated possession but in the second half seemed particularly 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.
James skated upfield at speed and was crudely taken out by 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 Mert Gunok to claw the ball to safety.
Turkey jeered any time Wales got anywhere near their 18-yard box but the drama all 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.
