Late Arda Turan goal seals win for Turkey

Turkey have moved up to third place in Group A after Arda Turan struck during the closing stages to earn his side a 1-0 win against Kazakhstan.

The minnows had looked on course to earn just their second point of the group, but the Atletico Madrid man netted seven minutes from time to take Turkey above the Netherlands, who play Latvia later this evening.

The first effort of the match came from Kazakhstan's Ulan Konysbajev, but his long-range strike was never threatening an early goal.

Bauyrzan Islamchan was the next to try his luck but like his teammate, he couldn't find the target before Turkey responded through Burak Yilmaz, who saw his shot towards the near corner blocked by a defender.

Shortly before the half-hour mark, Turan should have given the visitors the lead but he had to watch on as Stas Pokatilov staged an intervention in the Kazakhstan goal.

Mehmet Topal also had a chance to give Turkey a slender advantage, but despite rising to meet a corner, he couldn't direct his header into the corner.

With three points a must, Turkey pushed for the opener after the restart but Yilmaz was unfortunate to drive the ball wide after a well-struck attempt.

Chances dried up as the match entered the final quarter, but with Kazakhstan dropping slightly deeper, Turkey soon created two clear openings in the space of a minute.

After Umut Bulut fired agonisingly wide from inside the penalty area, Yilmaz latched on to a pass before driving the ball against the woodwork.

However, with seven minutes left, Turkey had their goal when Turan reacted sharply inside the penalty area to fire the ball into the roof of the net to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for Euro 2016.