Rustu Recber saved a penalty shot from Mladen Petric yesterday to send Turkey into the European Championship semi-finals with a 3-1 shoot-out win over Croatia after a 1-1 draw after extra time.

Arda Turan, Semih Senturk and Hamit Altintop scored for Turkey in the shoot-out. Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic also missed their shots for Croatia, while Darijo Srna scored the team's only penalty.

After a scoreless 90 minutes of regulation, Ivan Klasnic gave Croatia the lead with a header in 119th minute. The first player to ever take part at the European Championship after a kidney transplant headed in Modric's cross from close range only 22 minutes after coming on as a substitute.

Long clearance

But before the Croatian fans had stopped celebrating with time almost up, Recber sent a long clearance into Croatia's box and the ball dropped to Semih, whose left-footed shot deflected off defender Robert Kovac and went into the top corner of the net with goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa rooted to the ground.

"It seemed like the match was over, then to concede a goal, then go on to penalties, gave a psychological advantage to the Turks," Croatia coach Slaven Bilic said.

"This certainly isn't going to be easy to forget. Not only will we not forget this, this will haunt me for the rest of my life.

"We will probably weep for a few days, but such is life. We will be back."

Turkey will face Germany in the semi-finals on Wednesday in Basel, Switzerland. Both Germany and Turkey finished second in their groups in the first round.

Words of encouragement

Turkey rallied to win its last two matches, beating Switzerland 2-1 and then getting two goals in the final three minutes to beat the Czech Republic and advance to the quarter-finals.

"To lose a lead in such a short space of time would be a blow to any team. I knew they would be feeling it psychologically," Turkey coach Fatih Terim said. "I tell my players never to give up. I tell them that they shouldn't be afraid of losing or conceding goals. This is football. You should never give up until the referee blows the final whistle."

In a low quality match marked by defensive caution at Ernst Happel Stadium, a depleted Turkish team restricted Croatia to few opportunities by pressing in midfield and not allowing its opponent time on the ball.