Yes, Belgium will be favorite against Slovakia. But no, the Devils should certainly not take their opponent lightly. Francesco Calzona has built a team capable of developing play and bothering some of the best teams on the continent.
D-1 for Belgium, which will challenge Slovakia this Monday to open its Euro 2024. At a press conference, Domenico Tedesco made it clear that he had correctly warned his players. The Slovaks are certainly not to be underestimated.
“The qualifying results don’t lie. That’s the case for us, but also for Slovakia. They only lost two games, against Portugal. And it wasn’t 4-0 or 5-1, but 1 -0 and 3-2. That already tells their story.”
“They are a very aggressive team, who press very high. And unlike other teams, they are able to do it for 90 minutes. They notably came back to level with Portugal after being down 0-2. In this match, they deserved better than a defeat. They are a very vertical team, who try to attack and go as quickly as possible in the last third of the field.
Underestimating Slovakia would be the biggest possible mistake for the Devils
Kevin De Bruyne, too, was keen to recall the extent to which Slovakia had been capable of putting very good teams in danger. The team coached by Francesco Calzona is very generous and certainly does not intend to park the bus in front of the rectangle. Slovakia joined Germany with the aim of playing, having fun and impressing.
“We’ve seen several clips. It’s a team that plays 4-3-3, with a coach who was Maurizio Sarri’s assistant. The game is therefore similar, very aggressive, with very high pressure. The midfielder will be advanced and will try to push, it’s a team that tries to play good football.”
“They will probably try to do the same thing. Of course, in a tournament it can be different. But they really worried Portugal and several good teams.”
