Croatia have the upper hand. Their all-round play is better, their defense and attack is very well organised. They don’t have the best out of the quarterfinalists, but they have a pretty good balance. Turkey have Nihat Kahveci (pic), Villareal’s awesome striker but not much else. They have problems everywhere, despite their 
morale-boosting win against Czech. Their Captain is out, their 1st choice keeper is suspended, so is their playmaker Mehmet Aurelio plus a host of injuries to contend with at the back. Turkey are in trouble.
The Turkish coach has admitted that the way they’ve gone about in their matches has been to defend in the first half and then attack in the second. This was ridiculously evident against the Czech, whom despite having a lack of quality in their attack were able to pick up 2 goals in the 1st half. This is an extremely dangerous strategy and can easily be exploited by the Croatian coach, Slaven Bilic. Although the coach insists they’ll go on the attack against Croatia early, I doubt that will happen given the fragility of their defense.
Croatia are the dark horses to win the competition, and their win against Germany cannot be dismissed offhand. Their defense since the start of the tournament has not been first their first choice, but they have stepped up to the occasion. These are serious contenders, and they should be able to get past Turkey. 2-1 to Croatia.
(I should take a bit of time to do something about my font irregularities, which usually stems from me typing up my post on Word before posting, because my connections screw up every now and then. Internet is down right now, f’r instance) The problem is sometimes I start typing on the blog, then continue on Word. Easy to stop, just need to remember.)
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