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Turkish delight as new boy strikes
Wednesday 21 August 2002 
Turkey 3-0 Georgia
Turkish international newcomer Cihan Haspolatli scored in a 3-0 international friendly win over Georgia in Trabzon tonight. 

Duo take chance
Coach Senol Günes dropped striker Hakan Sükür, who is out of form and without a club side for the coming season, but Cihan and Nihat Kahveci impressed by taking their chances. 

Günes consternation
Striker Arif Erdem opened the scoring with a curling free-kick from 25 metres in the eighth minute. Georgia, however, found lots of room to run into the Turkish midfield and enjoyed the better first-half chances, going close on several occasions and provoking consternation from Günes.

Right-foot drive
Galatasaray SK midfield player Cihan was introduced after the break and collected his first goal for his country six minutes later with a towering header from a corner. Nihat wrapped up the scoring in the 61st minute with a right-foot drive as Turkey stepped up the pressure. 

Slovakia opener
Turkey, who finished third in the FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan, open their EURO 2004™ qualifying campaign against Slovakia on 7 September in Istanbul. Their other opponents in the group are England, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Liechtenstein and Slovakia.

Two years of trying
The GFF said that they were delighted to be playing the team that finished third at the FIFA World Cup finals in Korea/Japan. "We have been trying to arrange this game for two years and we started trying even harder after Senol Günes took charge of the Turkish team. He was a coach of our Arveladze brothers at Trabzonspor several years ago," GFF general secretary Valeri Cholaria said.

Estonia dropped
Georgia were scheduled to play Estonia in Tallinn on the same date, but the GFF ruled that a match against Turkey would offer better preparation ahead of Georgia's first EURO 2004™ qualifier against Switzerland on 7 September. "We agreed [the fixture] with Turkey and we sent our apologies to the Estonians. I hope they understand," Cholaria concluded.

First match
Turkey and Georgia, two neighbouring countries, have never faced each other before and Turkey have not played any home international matches in Trabzon for the past ten years.