Africa

Colombia U-17 1-1 Turkey U-17: South Americans Reach Semi-Finals

Colombia again come back from the death to qualify for the last four...

Nov 8, 2009 6:56:22 PM

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Colombia fought back from the brink of defeat to go past Turkey 5-3 on penalties after scores stood at 1-1 after extra-time. They now advance to the semi-finals of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria.

Like it was against fellow South Americans Argentina in the round of 16, Colombia had to wait until the dying minutes to draw level with Turkey, before they triumphed on penalties and qualified for the semi-finals against either Italy or Switzerland.

Turkey went in front after 20 minutes when a well-lofted free-kick from Enjin Bekdemir flew dangerously into the Colombian penalty area and was met by the unmarked skipper Muhammet Demir, who headed home his third goal of the tournament from eight yards out.

Both teams had chances to get on the scoreboard thereafter. England-based goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet was forced to make several saves before the Turkish defence finally caved in to the pressure from the Colombians.

A long ball up through the middle picked out Jorge Luis Ramos, who headed the ball over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net in the 90th minute.

Neither side found the target in extra time and so the game had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out. Turkey's Furkan Seker was first to miss from the spot when he booted over the bar, while the Colombians put away all five of their kicks.

Samm Audu, Goal.com