Turkey's youngsters were the shining stars late Monday, managing to remain leader in European Qualifiers group by drawing 1-1 with France, APA reports.
At the showdown at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, the latest World Cup champions France dominated the goalless first half at home.
The first goal in the match came rather late, with Olivier Giroud sending the ball to the nets at the 76th minute. The main reason why such a top-tier squad like France, - only Kylian Mbappé's transfer fee sits at around 200 million euros - failed to score a goal for so long was that Turkey had an outstanding stopper such as Merih Demiral.
Wearing number 3, Demiral truly shined as a future-proof asset of Turkish team, stopping countless French attacks on his own.
Another youngster, Kaan
Ayhan clinched the equalizer for the White-Reds only 6 minutes after Griezmann.
One of the true lifesavers of Turkey was the goalkeeper Mert Günok, who did a spectacular job in stopping French shots and headers.
Turkish players celebrated by making a soldier's salute to dedicate their goal to the Turkish soldiers who are currently in Syria's north for Operation Peace Spring.
The celebration was not televised by French TV direction.
Top two teams in each group will qualify directly for UEFA EURO 2020.
Both Turkey and France have big chances to reach EURO final.
On Friday, Turkey beat Albania 1-0 in the UEFA EURO 2020 qualifiers to top the Group H.
Meanwhile France won against Iceland 1-0 in Friday's away game to chase Turkey perseveringly in the group standings.
Turkey won six games out of eight group matches to score 19 points.
Sitting on the second spot, France also earned 19 points in eight matches.
Iceland were on the third spot as they had 15 points.
In June, Turkey defeated France for the first time ever in its history, 2-0, to lead the Group H.
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