Official European Football Champions Greece are the new Unofficial World Football Champions, having defeated Turkey 1-0 in this Euro qualifier courtesy of a late goal from Ioannis Amanatidis. It was the striker’s first goal in 20 games. ‘It was about time I scored for the national side,’ he said.

This was a sixth UFWC title win for Greece. The result also means that Greece have now qualified for Euro 2008, and the country’s newspapers were delighted. ‘Emperors!’, proclaimed Sportime, calling the match, ‘one of the greatest nights in Greek footballing history’.
Greece’s next match is at home to Malta on 17 November.
Turkey: Volkan Demirel; Servet Cetin, Gokhan Zan, Hamit Altintop, Emre
Belozoglu (Arda Turan 71); Ibrahim Uzulmez, Aurelio, Gokdeniz (Hakan Sukur
65), Umit Karan (Tumer Metin 46); Gokhan, Tuncay Sanli.

Greece: Chalkias; Dellas, Kyrgiakos, Antzas, Seitardis; Torosidis,
Karagounis, Basinas, Charisteas (Samaras 59); Amanatidis, Gekas
(Liberopoulos 56).

Turkey managed to retain the UFWC title against the Moldovans – just – but their Euro 2008 qualifying hopes suffered a huge blow. The Crescent Stars travelled to Moldova needing to take all three points, but they left with only a draw.

And it could have been much worse for Turkey, after Moldova took an 11th minute lead through Viorel Frunza’s header. The Turks fought back, but it was not until Umit Karan came off the substitutes’ bench that they drew level, the Galatasaray striker equalising in the 63rd minute. Turkey had the better of the remainder of the match, but Moldova held on to claim a draw.

Turkey will next play European Champions Greece on Wednesday evening.

Moldova: Calancea; Golovatenco, Epureanu, Savinov, Corneencov, Boridan; Josan, Zmeu (Namasco 67), Gatcan (Olexici 89); Comlenoc, Frunza (Calincov 86).

Turkey: Hakan Arikan (Demirel 17); Servet Cetin, Gokhan Zan, Uzulmez, Emre Belozoglu; Mehmet Topuz, Aurelio, Arda Turan (Tumer Metin 69), Inan (Umit Karan 46); Tuncay Sanli, Gokhan Unal.

Turkey are the new UFWC champions after a controversial win over Hungary. It was Turkey’s first ever UFWC title win. For the first 62 minutes, this was a dull – if bad-tempered – match, with few chances for either side. Then the game changed on referee Stuart Dougal’s decision to send off Hungary captain Zoltan Gera. Chasing a through ball, Gera appeared to be brought down inside the penalty area by Turkish keeper Arikan. But Dougal saw it as a dive, and showed Gera a second yellow then a red card.

Turkey quickly took advantage, and Gokhan of Besiktas broke the deadlock in the 68th minute. Hungary then suffered another blow, losing goalkeeper and star man Marton Fulop to injury. Within a minute substitute Janos Balogh was picking the ball out of the back of the net after Fenerbahce’s Mehmet Aurelio scored from a corner. Halil Altintop scored a third deep into injury time.

‘Turkey deserved the win and the three points,’ said coach Fatih Terim. Few Hungarians could agree, but Turks will be delighted with their first ever UFWC title, a remarkable statistic for a side ranked among the world’s top 20 or so footballing nations. Turkey will defend their new title against Moldova in Chisinau on 13 October.

Turkey: Arikan, Asik, Hamit Altintop, Cetin, Uzulmez, Aurelio, Tuncay Sanli, Gokhan, Gokdeniz (Halil Altintop 61), Ayhan (Ozkan 67), Nihat (Belozoglu 46).

Hungary: Fulop (Balogh 71), Juhasz, Szelesi, Vanczak, Csizmadia, Vasko, Vass, Gera, Dzsudzsak (Halmosi 82), Hajnal, Priskin (B. Toth 66).

A single goal after 75 minutes from David Siradze was enough to defeat Turkey and retain the UFWC title for Georgia. Siradze, who plays his club football in the German second division, was left unmarked to head home from a corner kick. It was a deserved victory for Georgia, who were on top for much of the game, watched by a near-capacity 50,000 crowd, despite missing key players Kaladze, Arveladze, and Kobiashvili.

All claims that this match between Black Sea neighbours was a ‘friendly’ were blown away by a major first-half brawl between the two sets of players – although none were sent off. Turkey have fighting form – they were involved in a notorious scuffle with Switzerland in 2005. Georgia now have 2 ranking points, while Turkey are still yet to win a UFWC match. Georgia were 5 to 1 outsiders to win this match with some bookmakers, so clued-up UFWC fans could have made a healthy profit.

Watch Siradze’s winning header via YouTube.

The next UFWC title match will see Georgia travel to Hampden Park to take on all-time UFWC champions Scotland on 24 March 2007. A full preview will appear here soon. Should Scotland win that match and take the unofficial title, their next match – just four days later – is against official champions Italy. Exciting times ahead for UFWC fans…

Georgia: Nukri Revishvili (Georgi Lomaia, 46), Georgy Shashiashvili, Zaal Eliava, Lasha Salukvadze, Zurab Khizanishvili, Zurab Menteshashvili, Levan Tskitishvili, David Kverkvelia, (Gogita Gogua, 67), Georgi Demitradze (Georgi Benashvili, 87), David Siradze (David Mudzhiri, 77), Lado Burduli (Mikhail Ashvetia, 81).

Turkey: Volkan Demirel, Tugay Kerimoglu (Gokhan Unal, 79), Arda Turan (Metin Tumer, 63), Servet Cetin, Hamit Altintop, Mehmet Aurelio, Aydin Toscali, Tuncay Sanli (Fatih Tekke, 46), Ibrahim Uzulmez, Sabri Sarioglu (Mehmet Topuz, 63), Halil Altintop (Gokdeniz Karadeniz, 46).

Although Georgia and Turkey are geographical neighbours, in a football sense they seem miles apart. FIFA rank UFWC title holders Georgia 95th in the world, and Turkey 27th. But Turkey have never won a UFWC match, and Georgia comfortably beat Uruguay last time around. This is a title match that could easily go either way. The Georgian team, the ‘Jvarosnebi’ (Crusaders), are coached by German Klaus Toppmöller, and skippered by AC Milan stopper Kakha Kaladze. They will hope to welcome back all-time top scorer Shota Arveladze, formerly of Rangers and now at AZ Alkmaar, who missed the Uruguay match through injury. Schalke 04 midfielder Levan Kobiashvili was a two-goal hero in the match against Uruguay. Premiership interest comes courtesy of Blackburn Rovers defender Zurab Khizanishvili.

Turkey’s last match was a 1-1 away draw with official world champions Italy back in November, but it’s doubtful that many pointers can be taken from a friendly in which a total of 17 substitutions were made. Newcastle midfielder Emre Belozoglu could miss out against Georgia, being controversially absent from his club side in recent weeks (officially through injury) having been accused of making racist remarks during a Premiership match against Everton – he denies the claim. Turkey’s nickname is Ay-Yildizlar (the Crescent-Stars). The so-called ‘friendly’ will be played at the 59,000-capacity Boris Paichadze National Stadium of Georgia. The result and a full report will be posted here after the match.