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Turkey satisfied with form

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 6 Jun 2012

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Turkey assistant coach Tayfun Korkut praised his team for their recent performances after a 2-0 win over Ukraine on Tuesday.

Goals from Caner Erkin and Mustafa Pektemek saw Turkey to the victory over the Euro 2012 co-hosts, their fourth win in five friendlies.

While disappointed his side failed to qualify for the 16-team tournament, Korkut said their efforts in the friendlies were a sign they were on the right track.

“It’s a pity that we will not experience (Euro 2012). We will experience it but unfortunately only in front of the TV,” Korkut said.

“But the five friendly games we have played were really important for us because we are in the process of building a new team.

“We are really satisfied how things went for us, not only because we’ve won four matches, because of the way we played soccer.

“It was the possibility for us to test a lot of new players and they presented themselves very well in these friendly matches.”

Korkut said Turkey had already turned their attentions to the World Cup qualifiers, which begin later this year.

“We have a team with lots of inexperienced players, but they are surrounded with experienced players like Emre (Belozoglu) and (Hamit) Altintop and they lead the team well,” he said.

“This works and we are on a good path for the future. Now we are totally focused on the World Cup qualifiers.”

Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said he was without 10 players for the clash after an illness spread through the camp.

Key midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk is in hospital and on a drip due to the illness that has also affected striker Andriy Voronin.

“Tymoshchuk is still in a bad condition, we have got him on a drip,” Blokhin told reporters following the defeat.

“And this is not funny.

“We have to wait for the doctors’ verdict but the situation is far from funny.

“I do not know the reason for the illness because we all eat different food. We have one week to recover … It’s good that it did not happen on June 11 (when Ukraine play Sweden).”

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