Turkey and Georgia play out the game of the tournament; Portugal pull out last-gasp victory over Czech Republic

After an exhausting, exhilarating, electrifying 90-some minutes, the scoreboard read 3-1 in Turkey’s favor over Georgia. But truly, we were all winners in that game, one of the most entertaining I’ve seen in some time. Just flat-out can’t-miss action from start to finish, neither team pausing to take a breath let alone settle for a useless sideways pass.

And of course spurred on by their most vociferous fans, especially with the Turkey faithful packing Dortmund’s Yellow Wall and painting it bright, bright fiery (very fiery) red. Tremendous stuff, all around.

Highlights packages should be just full replays. Here is a 15-minute version, for taste.

Tuesday’s second game (there were only two) was a far more subdued affair between Portugal and the Czech Republic — though with the latter almost pulling off an upset, it was almost as dramatic in the end as well. Portugal needed a stoppage-time winner from young Francisco Conceição (son of the legendary Sérgio Conceição) to complete a second-half comeback and grab all three points.

They will play Georgia next while the Czechs face a do-or-die against Turkey.