Six months ago, if anyone had suggested that Semih Şentürk, Kazım Kazım or Uğur Boral would start for Turkey in a UEFA EURO 2008™ semi-final against Germany, the identity of the trio would have been considered even more unlikely than Fatih Terim's squad getting to Wednesday's showdown in Basel at all.
Of the trio, only striker Semih even took part in qualifying and he and the two wingers had amassed just ten caps between them when the year began. Yet Terim named the three in his finals squad ahead of the likes of record cap-holder Hakan Şükür, and that they are being given such a responsibility has more than a little to do with Fenerbahçe SK's own European heroics this season. They had never previously progressed past the UEFA Champions League group stage but FC Internazionale Milano, PSV Eindhoven, PFC CSKA Moskva and Sevilla FC were all defeated before Fenerbahçe fell to Chelsea FC – and even then the eventual runners-up were beaten 2-1 in Istanbul as Fenerbahçe equalled Galatasaray AS's 2000/01 quarter-final run, propelling some new names into Terim's thoughts.
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