Altintop hungry for Germans

Midfielder says Turkey can win Euro 2008

By Hayley Paterson   Last updated: 21st June 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Altintop hungry for Germans

Altintop: Relishing tie

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Turkey penalty ace Hamit Altintop is relishing taking on some of his Bayern Munich team-mates in the semi-final against Germany.

After Turkey's dramatic quarter-final win against Croatia on penalties, the Gelsenkirchen-born midfielder fired home the winning spot-kick and also claimed the man of the match.

But in the crunch tie against Germany in Basel, Altintop could face as many as five Bayern colleagues and believes his insider knowledge will play a pivotal part during Fatih Terim's team-talk prior to the match.

"It's important that we rest first and then we can analyse Germany with our coach," the 25-year-old said.

Believe

"We can beat anybody if we prepare ourselves properly. All the team showed tonight that it's important to believe in ourselves, in what's right, and in what our coach tells us.

"If we play like this, we shouldn't fear any team."

Reflecting on the 3-1 spot-kick win after Ivan Klasnic's extra time opener and Semih Senturk's equaliser in the 120th minute, a confident Altintop added: "It's vital to be cold-blooded in shoot-outs - you mustn't show nerves in football.

"If we carry on this way and believe in ourselves, we can win the tournament."