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By Mike Collett
BASEL, June 12 (Reuters) - If Switzerland's match against Turkey had been abandoned because of bad weather it would have been replayed the next day, UEFA said on Thursday.
Torrential rain 10 minutes into the Group A match made the Basel pitch almost unplayable on Wednesday but it stopped at halftime and conditions improved rapidly in the second period.
Turkey scored two second-half goals to win 2-1 and eliminate the co-hosts from the competition.
UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said if games were abandoned there were plans to replay them the following day.
HEAVY RAIN
"We had warning before kickoff heavy rain was on its way but of course the match had to go ahead," he told reporters.
"If the referee and the match delegate had thought at any time the pitch was unplayable or that conditions were becoming too dangerous for the players, they of course would have interrupted the match or abandoned it."
Gaillard said the drainage system had worked well at St Jakob Park.
"Luckily the rain largely stopped by halftime. The weather improved in the second half and we were very impressed with the way the drainage system coped with the amount of water on the pitch," he added.
"But if it had been abandoned it would have been replayed with a 3pm kickoff on Thursday."
The next game scheduled for Basel is the final Group A match for Switzerland and section winners Portugal on Sunday, with the teams due to train on the pitch the evening before.
The weather forecast is for more heavy rain over the next three weeks.
"This is June and this is Switzerland and Austria and there are going to be storms," said Gaillard.
