Turkey’s Mert Günok wowed fans with his all-time clutch save to deny Austria in Euro 2024

Turkey survived thanks to one of the greatest saves in soccer history.

Turkey is not a traditional international soccer power. Far from it. But after overcoming Austria in Euro 2024’s Round of 16 on Tuesday, it’s becoming apparent that this dark horse feels right at home in the tournament.

And that never happens without some all-time heroics on the part of goalkeeper Mert Günok.

With Austria relentlessly pressing for a tying goal in stoppage time, midfielder Christoph Baumgartner found himself wide open in front of the net for a perfect header. He would’ve scored under almost any other circumstance, and this matchup would have seen extra time. We’re probably talking about a goal 99.9 percent of the time.

Instead, Günok’s lightning-quick reflexes let him just barely get his fingertips on the ball to make one of the greatest soccer saves we’ve ever seen:

Here’s another close-up angle of Günok’s all-time clutch save:

HOW on Earth did he do that? It’s the clear save of the tournament, and there probably won’t be another worthy candidate, let alone one that will go down forever into soccer lore.

I’m inclined to believe that making the save is partly luck, but it takes a tremendous amount of skill to guess right and deny someone right at the doorstep off a perfect pass.

Kudos to Günok. He probably just singlehandedly (no pun intended) kept Turkey’s Cinderella run at Euro 2024 alive.

Soccer fans were amazed by Günok’s all-time clutch save

Featured image courtesy of Fox Sports