It would be safe to say that with the 1-0 win over Belgium in their opening game, Slovakia pulled off the biggest shock of the tournament so far.
By Nathan Evans
After taking the lead in just the seventh minute, through Ivan Schranz, Francesco Calzona’s side then produced a defensive masterclass to keep Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and co. at bay, albeit with the help of some luck, and favourable VAR calls on the day.
Not only did that victory give them a winning start to the tournament, but it also acted as their tenth victory across their last 14 internationals in total, a run of results which has promoted them into 48th spot in FIFA’s current rankings.
Their recent success has been built on the foundations of a solid backline, who have kept three clean sheets in succession and will now go in search of keeping a fourth in a row for the first time since way back in 2000. In their opening fixture, centre-back pairing Milan Škriniar and Denis Vavro impressed in particular, combining to record 15 defensive actions and a total of eight clearances to keep Belgium out.
Goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka also performed mightily in between the sticks during his FotMob player-of-the-match display, making five saves throughout, a total one more than he had made across his prior five international outings combined.
That trio is likely to be busy again at Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf on Friday as they look to seal another victory and progress to the knockout rounds of the European Championships for the first time since 2016.
This time around they come up against a Ukraine side who struggled during a 3-0 loss to Romania in their own Group E opener. In the group, many would have predicted Serhiy Rebrov’s side to finish second behind Belgium but instead, they now sit on the edge of exiting the tournament after just two matches if they lose again here.
The former striker admitted in his press conference after the game that ‘nobody expected this result’ as two huge errors from goalkeeper Andriy Lunin consigned Ukraine to two losses in their last three outings overall, both of which have seen them concede exactly three goals.
He must now act quickly to get his side in the right mindset to bounce back here, but having secured just one win across four competitive head-to-head fixtures previously, more misery wouldn’t exactly surprise.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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