When football fields turn into battlefields

Before the game, it was clear that the round of 16 was at stake. The Czechs had to win, and the Turks could not allow themselves to be defeated. All this indicated that it would be a high-intensity match full of tension and nervousness. However, nobody could've imagined that the Romanian referee István Kovács would've had his hands full and showed 19 cards!

In the first half, there were five cards in total (Antonín Barák was sent off due to a second yellow), and then the match somehow slipped out of the Romanian's hand, and he ended up showing 13 yellow and one red card! Although the Turks won the game, they got as many as 11 bookings, but none of their players was sent off. Apart from Barák, Tomáš Chorý also got a red card, even though he was on the bench. Interestingly, seven of 19 cards were shown to players who had not been in the game at that moment.

EURO 2024: Fantastic left side of the bracket... and then, there's the one on the right

Wednesday's clash is by far the EURO match with the most cards (in the second-placed match, there were "only" 10 cards). However, including the World Cup games provides a competition. Namely, taking a look at World Cup "battlefields" puts the aforementioned duel only in third place of the most violent matches at major tournaments.

The fifth spot goes to the only final on the list - the 2010 WC final between Spain and the Netherlands. In the match in which Andrés Iniesta brought the first world crown to the Spaniards, the English referee Howard Webb showed 14 yellow and one red card - a second yellow to Oranje's John Heitinga in the 109th minute, just seven minutes before Iniesta's decisive strike. Nevertheless, the Englishman also missed to send off Nigel de Jong after his horrendous tackle on Xabi Alonso. Truth be told, the extra time significantly contributed to the number of cards. Had it not been for it, this match wouldn't have made the list.

The legendary quarter-final of the last edition of the World Cup between the Netherlands and Argentina will probably be remembered by Wout Weghorst's added-time goal and Argentina's victory on penalties. However, Antonio Mateu Lahoz ended up showing 16 bookings, while Denzel Dumfries was sent off during the penalty shoot-out, getting both yellow cards during penalties.

The 2002 World Cup Group E clash between Germany and Cameroon coloured the pitch red and yellow. Ahead of the last-round match, the rivals had four points each, which indicated there would be fireworks. Die Mannschaft emerged triumphant 2-0, although they were a man down since the 40th minute when Carsten Ramelow was shown a second booking. In the end, the Spanish ref Antonio López Nieto showed 16 yellow and two red cards since Cameroon's Patrick Suffo was also sent off 13 minutes before the final whistle.

Finally, the dirtiest ever match in major tournaments, which even got a nickname - Battle of Nuremberg - was the round of 16 clash at the 2006 World Cup between -for the third time the Netherlands - and Portugal. The Russian ref Valentin Ivanov showed as many as 20 cards! There were 16 yellow and dreadful four red cards - two for each team. Portugal's Costinha and Deco and the Netherlands' Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were sent off, while Cristiano Ronaldo had to leave the pitch due to an injury. We saw twenty cards, but just one goal. Portugal won the game 1-0 thanks to Maniche's strike in the 23rd minute, although after such a "massacre", the result was somewhat irrelevant.