Turkey continued their pre-UEFA EURO 2008™ preparation camp in the small German village of Marienfeld with a training session on Saturday where all the players in the squad participated, except Servet Çetin who worked separately in accordance with a special programme due to his groin injury.
Total recovery
FC Bayern München midfielder Hamit Altıntop, who had been a doubt for this summer's tournament after breaking a metatarsal during his country's friendly against Belarus in March, provided some further good news. "I have totally recovered from the foot injury," he said. "I don't feel pain anymore and I'm ready to play at the moment. I can say that playing against Portugal in the first match in the group is an advantage for us. If we play well enough, we can win this game. If we can apply Fatih Terim's tactics on the pitch, then there will be no problems. We will do our utmost in order to be successful."
Excellent spirit
Galatasaray AS's Mehmet Topal said that the spirit among the Turkish team was perfect. "We have a great camp and everything is positive for us at this stage," said the 22-year-old. "Only some slight injury problems make us feel bad. But when they return, we'll be stronger. We have taken a morale-boosting victory in our first preparation match against Slovakia. I know that the coaching staff was satisfied with our performance there."
Tough decision
Mehmet also emphasised that even he would understand if coach Terim decided to leave him out of the final 23-man squad. "Every player wants to be in the national team squad, especially for such a big tournament," he added. "To stay out of this squad, would surely upset any player. But even if we feel down, we must put the national team's success as top priority. Therefore we must respect the final decision. We are professional players."
Global interest
Mehmet sees UEFA EURO 2008™ as an opportunity to announce himself on the European stage. "All the coaches follow this tournament and when you play some nice football, agents and leading teams get interested in you," said the three-times capped midfielder. "Like every player, I have a target to play for a leading European club. Everybody thinks that Portugal are the favourites for our group but Turkey have very talented players who play for various European clubs and are used to playing together. We are powerful and our form graphic is at the top. If we can show team spirit, we can beat Portugal."
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