Thin on the ground for Fatih

Jun 22 2008 By Gordon Waddell

FATIH TERIM last night hailed his never-say-die Turkey heroes and backed them to keep their dream Euro run going.

But he will need to turn his hotel into an emergency ward if they are to reach the final.

The coach faces a desperate fight to revive his skeleton side ahead of Wednesday's semi-final against Germany after a thrilling shoot-out triumph over Croatia.

He went into that game with just 15 outfield players and eight of them a booking away from a ban.

Three stars - Tuncay Sanli, Arda Turan and Emre Asik - saw yellow and will miss the semi. Skipper and talisman Nihat Kahveci also limped out with a groin problem.

Now Terim is battling to get his crocks fit and sighed: "I haven't been able to assess the damage yet but we have injuries and suspensions so have to do something.

"I tell my players never to give up until the final whistle though and not to be afraid of losing.

"If only we could have all the injured players back. But without themwe are still being successful."

Terim's men came under fire from Croat coach Slaven Bilic who claimed his side had been cheated.

The Turks have won three games so far yet only led for a total of two minutes in the whole tournament.

However, Terim said: "My team is only two years old. We have worked hard and deserve to be in the semi-final. If Croatia had won I'd have said they deserved it."