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June 30 – Half an hour before kick-off, as the Lightning Seeds’ famous Three Lions anthem was belted out over the tannoy, England’s legions of fans, who made the Arena AufShalke a home from home, did their best to join in, even if their timing was not quite in sync.
Football Coming Home? Not for 95 minutes it wasn’t until a quite extraordinary denouement when England, seemingly on the end of a humiliating exit at Euro 2024, turned their last-16 tie with Slovakia on its head to win 2-1 after extra time and book an unlikely quarterfinal meeting with Switzerland.
Abject embarrassment to unbridled joy in the flick of a switch. At least for England. For Slovakia, ranked 45th in the world, gut-wrenching despair, the greatest day in their footballing history cruelly snatched from their grasp.
The last time Slovakia reached the knockout stages of a European Championship, eight years ago, they were swept aside 3-0 by Germany. But after beating Group F favourites Belgium at Euro 2024, the team’s self-confidence was at an all-time high.
They genuinely believed they could hurt England, masterminded by their Italian coach, the former coffee sales rep Francesco Calzona though reaching a European Championship quarterfinal would be the biggest achievement for a country of 5.5 million people since becoming independent in 1993.
They may have been rank outsiders, after all they hadn’t beaten England in six previous attempts, but they were no footballing minnows as their win over Belgium showed in the group stage.
Ivan Schranz put Slovakia ahead with his third goal of the tournament
Plus don’t forget that in qualifying, they suffered only two narrow defeats against Portugal, and were otherwise pretty convincing as they bought into a new, more attacking style under Calzona.
They made their intentions clear early doors with a series of swift counter-attacks including a glorious three-man move that ended with David Hancko flashing a shot narrowly wide.
Gareth…
Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/06/30/bellingham-kane-spare-englands-blushes-slovakia-just/
Author : Paul Nicholson
Publish date : 2024-06-30 19:16:25
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