The losing coach felt wronged. The penalty shootout had taken place at the wrong end, he complained. The heat and noise issuing from a bank of Turkish fans with painted faces and shrill whistles was unfair on his two players who had missed the target. The winning manager, meanwhile, wore his shirt unbuttoned well down his chest, beaming as he left the stadium, his place in history assured.

This was Copenhagen in May 2000, where Galatasaray had just beaten Arsenal in a final of the Uefa Cup completed to the sound of Arsène Wenger bemoaning where the penalties were taken. The scenario was echoed in many ways in Vienna on Friday night, when Turkey reached the semi-finals of the European Championship via penalties under the guidance of the man who has made history so many times. Fatih Terim, aka The Emperor, looks little different from the night he made Galatasaray Turkey’s only team to win a senior international trophy. He is back for his second stint as national coach. His tendency to perform these feats with the daring and drama of a trapeze artist persists.

When Galatasaray won the Uefa Cup with 10 men - the Romanian Gheorghe Hagi had been sent off - the rest of Europe noted for certain that Turkish football had taken off. Terim had already guided the national team to Euro 96, and four years later they reached the knockout stages of the European Championship for the first time. After that, they finished third at the 2002 World Cup, an adventure with some of the same rollercoaster quality that has become their trademark in this competition. The Turks reached their semi-final date with Brazil thanks to a 94th-minute goal in their last-eight meeting with Senegal.

Absent from the major tournaments since, Turkey have become the raucous gate-crasher at Euro 2008, playing the role of also-rans convincingly as their fixtures approach the final whistle, only to cast off the disguise for the most astonishing recoveries. Against Switzerland in the second group game, chasing their first points of the tournament, Turkey were losing 1-0 between the 32nd and 57th minutes. They triumphed only in stoppage time. Against the Czech Republic, in a match where the winner would progress at the expense of the other, Turkey trailed 2-0 after an hour. They drew level only three minutes from full-time, and won thanks to Nihat Kahveci’s second goal in the 89th minute.

This sort of stuff would have the most docile spectator shifting to the edge of his seat. Getting some Turkish fans to stay seated at all is quite a task anyway, so there has naturally been much delirium in Switzerland, Austria and on either side of the Bosphorus. Searching for a rational explanation of what happened in the quarter-final, Croatia’s head coach, Slaven Bilic acknowledged: “There is something special about this team.” To say they are unpredictable is only partly accurate. Terim has been obliged to make all sorts of changes to his XIs because of suspensions and injuries and, mostly because matches keep going the way of the opposition, he seeks late solutions. But the manner of their victories has become predictable: the comebacks arrive marginally later at each stage in the competition.

The recovery against Croatia was so late that Bilic, like Wenger in Copenhagen, protested that the circumstances were unfair. Bilic suspected that the referee’s final whistle ought to have blown before Semih Senturk’s equaliser arrowed past Stipe Pletikosa. It was a wonder anybody could have heard at all above the din of two sets of supporters that nobody could describe as diffident. Croatia appeared to have killed the contest with two minutes of extra time remaining. Time was when this would have been a “golden goal”, with no whistle required. The rules have changed and Turkey play the system well. Seldom have such strikes counted more heavily. In more than 6½ hours of football played by Turkey at Euro 2008, they have held their leads for a total of less than eight minutes – most of those minutes added on by referees. And here they are, in the semi-finals.

After all their epic codas, the penalties against Croatia were straightforward. Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic missed. Turkey’s Arda Turan, a 21-year-old with a middle-aged face, scored, as did Semih, the supersub from Fenerbahce. Then it was three converted spot-kicks out of three thanks to Hamit Altintop, one of several players for whom the next adventure carries a particular frisson.

Germany v Turkey will be a resonant match for the 2m Turks who call Germany home, and tens of thousands will weigh up travel possibilities to Basle on Wednesday. Friends of the Altintop family will be among them. Hamit, the Bayern Munich midfielder, and his twin brother, Halil – who did not make the squad – are among several professionals with Turkish roots who owe much of their football education to the Bundesliga. The Altintops are German-born. The defender Hakan Balta, Terim’s preferred left-back, was born in Berlin. The gifted Yildiray Bas-turk, left out by Terim at the last minute, is the son of immigrants; like Altintop, he has become a prominent spokesman for the German-Turkish community, heading initiatives against prejudice and promoting integration.

Terim’s concern at the moment is how many able-bodied footballers he can count on, be they German by birth, or Brazilian - midfielder Mehmet Aurelio should return from suspension - or even the lad from East London, Colin Kazim-Richards, who grew up in England the son of a Turkish mother and an Antiguan father. The impressive Arda is banned, as are Middlesbrough’s Tuncay Sanli and the central defender Emre Asik, for whom cover in the shape of Emre Gungor is no longer an option because of his calf injury. Goalkeeper Volkan Demirel was given a two-match ban for his red card against the Czech Republic, so veteran Recber Rustu can expect to deputise again, as he did against Croatia.

Then there are the other injuries. Nihat, the country’s best forward, pulled up with a groin problem close to the end of the epic against Croatia. Emre Belozoglu, of Newcastle United, has been out with a hamstring problem since the opening night of the tournament. Tumer Metin, another midfield player, has a groin injury, while centre-half Servet Cetin has expressed doubts about recovering his fitness over the next three days.

Those fit enough will also need to shake off fatigue. But they did so, 1-0 down, with midnight approaching, on Friday. “It took a look from the coach,” said Kazim-Richards, “and that look spurred us on.”

Turkey goes Euro crazy
- Turkey’s epic and unexpected win over Croatia on Friday was splashed all over the front and back pages in Istanbul yesterday. National daily Aksam roared ‘We now pass Vienna and march on for the cup’ while the Star’s front page carried a picture of Turkey’s clinching penalty in the shootout beneath the banner ‘The Vienna Turkish Waltz’
- Takvim used its entire front page to show celebrating Turkey players with the headline ‘Oh Yes’ followed by the sub-heading ‘Fatih Terim’s tigers work a miracle’
- Sabah agreed, trumpeting ‘Miracles are our job’ above a shot of the entire Turkish team rushing to join goalkeeper Recber Rustu after Croatia’s third penalty miss