It's bitter news down here, yes we are really down, in Albion, primarily because the English are absent from the Cup but also, you get the feeling, that uncomfortable feeling that something else is quite amiss. I have heard at least 13 people now, who's counting?, make the suggestion that Turkey do not even belong, that they are not even European, that they should not be playing at this tournament at all. There's been not so subtle digs about an entirely alien football culture and right from the beginning, you could tell who the commentators were batting for. Coming into the tournament, the Turks, semi-finalists and one of the youngest teams at the South Korea- Japan World Cup 2002, were the second from bottom worst bet to win the tournament, 66-1. Now they are one of four left in it.

It would be hard to deny that Lady Luck, or whatever comely incarnation of the Fates, or whatever it is they call her in Turkey, let's lazily go with Kismet, was the legal twelfth man (woman) on the pitch for Turkey, the fourth substitute, their secret weapon off the bench. It is also hard to argue against the notion that a team that has struggled to beat Switzerland, hosts or not, is hardly a candidate for a top for finish in a major tournament (could Kenya possibly beat the Swiss?).

Still, it is undeniable that Turkey have arrived at the semi-finals playing against the odds. They went to play against a much fancied Croatian side having had to endure a gruelling last group match. They had lost their starting goalkeeper, the Croats had rested most of their players having already qualified after two matches. On top of that, at the beginning of the match, a majority of the Turks were on yellow cards and potential disqualification from participation in the semis, should they reach them.

Their defence, if that is what you will call it, is surely worse than anything Kenya can put together, and the fact that players such as Kazim Richards are involved in the setup ought to have written them off under different circumstances. But these are not those circumstances, and hard as it is to take sometimes, this is what football is all about, putting the ball at the back of the net.

Still there are wider, deeper issues. Half a millennium after Suleiman the Magnificent's ill-fated attempt of an invasion ended at the gates of Vienna, and with his much loathed in Europe successor Recep Erdogan in attendance, the Turks still make Europe very uncomfortable. The spectre of the Eastern Islamic, if secular, giant makes Europeans very uncomfortable, and nothing would serve to discomfit them more than Turkey, even a much diminished and under-strength Turkey with players banned, others injured and Europe cheering against her beat that Old Dame of Europe Germany in the semis.