By: Bowen Wang

This week, the Czech Republic played against Turkey. The game turned physical after Turkey won 2-1.

The game started well for the Czechs, who employed a man-to-man strategy to try to disrupt Turkey’s midfielders.

Then, things went downhill for the Czech Republic when Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs showed a yellow card to Antonin Barak, the Czech Republic’s attacking midfielder, for fouling Ferdi Kadioglu, a Turkish left-back. Barak clearly did not learn his lesson, and 9 minutes later, he committed another foul, resulting in a second yellow card, which ejects him from the game leaving the Czech Republic down to ten players.

Toward the end of the game, there were 15 more yellow cards and one additional red card. This shattered a Euro Cup record, as the previous record was only 10 yellow cards.

After Turkey scored their second goal and the referee blew the final whistle, Turkish players celebrated excessively. This provoked a reaction from the Czechs, causing players who were not even on the field to join the brawl.

In response, the referee began handing out yellow and red cards. According to The Athletic, “Shortly after, players and coaches from both sides ran onto the field to join a scuffle near the halfway line. As the referee struggled to regain control, he issued yellow cards to Tomas Soucek and Arda Guler, Turkey’s young star attacker who scored six goals in 10 league appearances for Real Madrid last season.”

Despite the Czech players’ frustration, the results were the same. The team is eliminated from the knockout stage, while Turkey advances.