If Romania and Slovakia obtained a draw (1-1) which allows the two teams to continue their journey in the round of 16 of Euro-2024, for the third day of Group E, Thursday in Frankfurt, the two teams played the game well. The two coaches had committed to it the day before, during the press conferences, and the players kept their promise, despite a temperature above 30 degrees at kick-off and a big storm at the start of the game. second half. In the end, the operation is more favorable to Romania which wins the group and will play its eighth next Tuesday in Munich against the 3rd in group A, C or D.
Slovakia will only know its opponent, the place and date of its eighth after the Group F matches which take place at 9:00 p.m. In a very indecisive group, where the four teams were tied with 3 points after the first two days, a first in a Euro, this match was just as much. Respectively first and third at kick-off, the Romanians and Slovaks put on an entertaining show for a long time with 22 shots in total. While Belgium and Ukraine were neutralized (0-0) in the other match, Francesco Calzona’s men almost took first place in the group, opening the scoring with a very nice cross header in retreating from Ondrej Duda (1-0, 24th).
Strelec’s decisive save
But less than a quarter of an hour later, the spinning Ianis Hagi obtained a penalty that Razvan Marin propelled into the right corner of Martin Dubravka (1-1, 37th), giving back first place to his team. In the second half, a strike from Marin and another from Denis Dragus, in the space of a few seconds, made the army of yellow supporters quiver with pleasure (61st). Three minutes later, Florin Nita made the necessary foot save to prevent David Strelec from giving the Slovaks back the lead (64th), before as the minutes passed, the fear of conceding a goal ended up take precedence over the will to win.
The announcement of additional time of only three minutes even received a standing ovation from supporters of both camps. The final whistle was a liberation for all and the Romanians, celebrating in front of the corner which was entirely dedicated to them, confirmed their status as the mood-setters of this Euro.
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