ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey clawed their way back from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Ukraine with a late penalty from Hakan Calhanoglu in their Group I World Cup qualifier on Thursday (Oct 6).

Andriy Yarmolenko put the visitors ahead in the 24th minute with a penalty after Omer Toprak brought down Artem Kravets and two minutes later Kravets doubled their lead when he was played in by Yarmolenko after springing the offside trap.

Ozan Tufan pulled a goal back for the hosts just before the break with a header in a crowded area from a corner by Calhanoglu, who equalised in the 81st minute with a penalty after Taras Stepanenko had pulled Cenk Tosun's shirt.

Turkey coach Fatih Terim controversially left Barcelona's in-form midfielder Arda Turan, Burak Yilmaz of Beijing Guoan and Galatasaray's Selcuk Inan out of his squad after the country's poor Euro 2016 campaign when they went out at the group stage.

Turkey and Ukraine both have two points from two games behind Croatia and Iceland who have four.