By: Benjamin  He

On the day of June 26, the Czech Republic v Turkey soccer match occurred, with Turkey winning 2-1. The next day, the game was crowned by The Athletic as “the dirtiest game in Euros history.”

During the game, there was a grand total of 18 cards handed out by the referee, 16 of which were yellows and two were reds. Five of those cards were given to players who weren’t even on the field.

So what happened during the game?

At first, things were looking good for the Czech Republic, who were employing a man-to-man pressing system that managed to disturb the other team’s superior midfield technicians. Things started going downhill, though, when at the 11th minute, midfielder Antonin Barak got a yellow card for dragging down left-back Ferdi Kadioglu.

A single yellow card might’ve been fine, but then just nine minutes later, Barak stuck out his foot in an attempt to take the ball before Salih Ozcan could. Barak tripped Ozcan and sent him into a heap, earning Barak his second yellow card, the earliest send-off in Euro’s history.

The next card went to Czech striker Patrik Schick. Schick wasn’t even on the pitch at the time. Schick was given a yellow card for dissent for yelling at the fourth official. Sometime after that, Juventus winger Kenan Yildiz got Turkey’s second yellow card when he sent center-back Robin Hranac rolling in the grass.

Then, a barrage of cards: yellow cards handed out to Calhanoglu, who scored Turkey’s brilliant opener in the 51st minute, Mert Muldur, Vitezslav Jaros, Lukas Cerv and backup goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir, who will miss Turkey’s round-of-16 tie against Austria next Tuesday.

At the end of the game, with a total of 16 yellows and two reds, the record for Euros cards in a game was decimated, blowing away the former record of ten yellow cards.