Disaster for Dutch as Croatia, Turkey book Euro berth

Paris:  Croatia and Turkey took the final automatic qualifying spots for Euro 2016 as the Netherlands, semi-finalists at last year’s World Cup, were eliminated.
The Dutch needed to beat the already-qualified Czech Republic in Amsterdam and hope Turkey lost at home to already-qualified Iceland in Konya to salvage third place in Group A and a spot in next month’s play-offs.
But in the end neither happened, with the 1988 European champions going down 3-2 to the Czechs, their third loss in four qualifiers under Danny Blind, while Turkey beat Iceland 1-0.
Elsewhere, Croatia clinched qualification from Group H as a 1-0 win in Malta allowed them to snatch second place in the section behind Italy at the expense of Norway.
Turkey, meanwhile, had Gokhan Tore sent off 12 minutes from time against Iceland but had third place in the bag thanks to events in Amsterdam.
They went one better, though, as Selcuk Inan’s brilliant free-kick on 89 minutes saw them win their game. And that, coupled with a 1-0 win for Kazakhstan in Latvia — secured by an Islambek Kuat goal — allowed Fatih Terim’s side to progress automatically as the best third-placed side. (AFP)