Turkey seal IBSA Blind Football European Championships crown with narrow victory over Russia

Turkey secured the IBSA Blind Football European Championships title by beating Russia 1-0 in the final ©BlindEuros/Twitter

Kahraman Kurbetoglu’s first-half strike saw Turkey crowned International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Football European Championships as they beat Russia 1-0 in a closely-fought final in Hereford, England, today.

The Turkish team, who claimed a penalty shootout victory to knock out defending champions Spain in the semi-finals, struck early and were able to see out a narrow win in a match where chances proved few and far between.

Following Kurbetoglu’s neat finish to hand his side the initiative, neither side were convincing going forward, although Russian duo Sergey Manzhos and Denis Egorov did look dangerous and both had decent half-chances to equalise before the break.

Russia, who secured a Rio 2016 berth by edging hosts England in a penalty shootout to reach the final, launched wave after wave of attacks but were met by stern resistance from the Turkish defence.

Emrah Ocal was one of the star performers for the Turkish side, who had also clinched their all-important Paralympics spot by virtue of reaching the tournament’s showpiece contest, as he began to dictate proceedings in the second half.

Russia continued to pepper the Turkish back line but were unable to create any real guilt-edged opportunities as Turkey held firm to secure an historic success.

England suffered their second consecutive penalty shootout defeat as they were beaten to third place by defending champions Spain ©BlindEuros/Twitter

The result installs Turkey as one of the favourites going into next year’s Paralympic Games in the Brazilian city as their combination of stout defence and clinical finishing handed them a deserved victory and sent a clear message to the rest of the visually-impaired sides who will compete in Rio de Janeiro.

In the third and fourth place play-off, home nation England suffered their second successive defeat on penalties, succumbing to a 1-0 loss against Spain in the shootout after the match finished goalless at the end of normal time.

Carmelo Garrido was the only player to find the net with his penalty and England’s Jono Heenan was left with the task of levelling proceedings but he fired wide to ensure the defending champions finished the event on a high.