Prolific attacks meet in Cascina

By Paul Saffer in Tirrenia

They both scored five goals in their decisive group games to reach this stage, but Croatia and Turkey know their UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-final is likely to be much tighter.

Bouncing back
The two teams meet on Wednesday afternoon in Cascina having each bounced back from Matchday 1 disappointments with two excellent victories. Croatia were leading the Netherlands by two goals in added time before being pegged back to 2-2 in their opener, but went on to top Group B by beating Israel 4-2 and Switzerland 5-2 - having trailed 1-0 at half-time in those matches.

Turkey through
Turkey, meanwhile, lost 1-0 to hosts Italy last Tuesday, but even winning coach Francesco Rocca admitted his side were lucky to prevail, and Abdullah Avci's side have since defeated England 3-2 and Belarus 5-1 to secure second place in Group A and a berth in the last four.

Free-scoring Croatia
Croatia coach Ivan Gudelj can call on two players, Nikola Kalinic and Damir Vidovic, who have scored three goals apiece in the finals. In all his team have managed 31 in their nine games in the 2004/05 tournament, including an 11-0 qualifying win against Andorra - Kalinic striking five times that day - and their group-stage haul of eleven.

'Attack-minded team'
Gudelj said: "We scored eleven goals in three games but we also conceded six. However, I think we have to continue like this because we are an attack-minded side. We only have to improve the way we start matches."

New mental approach
Warming to the latter theme, he added: "We have to improve our mental approach to the game. Next time we have to play well from the first minute and not start only in the second half when it may be too late."

Next goal
As for their opponents, Gudelj said: "I think Turkey are very strong. We are satisfied with our results so far but we are already focused on our next goal - reaching the final. We will give everything we have in order to win the semi-final, hoping to achieve another surprising result."

Leading striker
Although Kalinic's tally of ten goals in the competition including qualifying is the highest individual total, Turkey's Tevfik Köse is the leading scorer in the finals with five, having registered twice against England and claimed a hat-trick on Sunday versus Belarus. Nevertheless, Avci admits these two free-scoring teams could cancel each other out.

'Very strong'
"Before the start of the tournament I said there were eight strong sides, now only the best four are still in," he said. "It means Croatia are very strong. They scored many goals in their first three games, and we could have scored as many again.

Avci's hope
"However, every game is different and I cannot say if there will be many goals when we meet in the semi-final. We just hope to play well and reach the final, we don't care how many goals we will score."

Peru possibility
As well as a place in Saturday's final in Pontedera against Italy or the Netherlands, the winner will qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Peru later this year. A further berth is available in the third-place play-off.