In the early morning of July 1, Beijing time, in the 1/8 finals of the European Cup, the Slovak men's football team played against the England men's football team. Slovakia, ranked 45th in the world, can only be considered a weak team in this tournament, and England, ranked 5th in the world, are one of the favourites to win the tournament.
Slovakia have performed well in this European Championship, with four points from their first three games and scoring first in each game, making all the top 16 teams dare not underestimate this "underdog" with a total value of only 130 million euros. England are unbeaten in the group stage with one win and two draws, but the team's overall performance obviously does not match the total value of 1.5 billion euros, especially with only two goals scored and one goal conceded in three games, and the sluggish offensive form is the biggest problem facing manager Gareth Southgate. There was only one change to England's starting line-up, with teenager Maynu replacing Conor Gallagher and Rice in a back two, and it was worth noting that Bellingham and Kane lacked mutual support in the previous game and only made one pass, which was clearly not ideal. If they can regain their long-lost chemistry in this game, the team's attacking power will be greatly enhanced.
Slovakia have participated three times, and this is the second time they have advanced to the round of 16 and have never reached the quarter-finals. England have participated 11 times and reached the quarter-finals five times. Slovakia have not won six times against England since the first meeting between the two sides in 2002, with one draw and five defeats, and it will be interesting to see if this game can end its winless streak.
England's sluggish state continued after the start of the game, facing Slovakia's high-pressure and fast attack, the midfield and backfield made continuous mistakes, and several opponents broke the ball and counterattacked and rushed into the penalty area to create chaos, Guehi and Menublingham received three yellow cards in the opening 15 minutes, and the scene was quite embarrassing. Slovakia started with a lively start, the midfield was very fast in the transition and without the ball, aiming at the left side and rushing into the penalty area in turn to create danger, Hanzko took the ball and rushed into the penalty area from a small angle to push the shot wide, Haraslin forced a breakthrough in the middle of the penalty area and stabbed the ball clear.
After withstanding an onslaught from the opposite side, England's attack picked up slightly, with Foden falling in the box and being ignored by the referee and Menu's outside volley wide. Slovakia seized the opportunity of the opponent's unstable defensive position to counterattack, and in the 25th minute, Stleitz took the ball on the right side in front of the penalty area and cleverly plugged the vacancy, and Schlanz inserted a single knife to score on the flank to score his third goal of the tournament. Slovakia broke the deadlock for the first time in four consecutive games, the first time England have conceded in this tournament.
Although England was able to control the ball for a long time, there were too many invalid passes, the positional attack was still insensitive, the side-center transmission coordination lacked tacit understanding, Foden and Saka continued to lose in the front, and the support for the center forward was insufficient, resulting in Kane having to pull the side crosses many times. On the contrary, the youngster Mainou continued to organize the ball and pressed the long-range shot several times to play a certain threat. England's attacking quality in the first half was poor, with 0 shots on target from 6 attempts and just 0.2 expected goals, well below their opponents' 0.95 goals.
England returned to the second half as if they were waking up from a dream, accelerating the transition and constantly creating danger in front, Kieran Trippier crossed diagonally from the left side of the penalty area to connect Foden to score, and the referee signaled that the offside was invalid. Kane then cut across the box with the ball and fired a powerful shot from the middle of the box that was blocked. England had just improved in front, and there was a serious passing error at the back, and Lobotka's steal near the center circle was slightly wide, which made Pickford break out in a cold sweat. Southgate made a series of substitutions to form a siege at one point, Kane's header was dangerous but could not hit the target, and Rice missed a good chance to shoot from the top of the arc to the neutral post.
In the final stage, Slovakia's full retreat has become the end of a strong crossbow, and England pressed the play in front. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Guehi received a cross from the middle of the ball, and Bellingham was missed in front of the small penalty area and equalized the score to 1-1 with a stunning inverted hook, like a god descending to bring England back to extra-time.
Just one minute into extra-time, Palmer's cross was cleared, Guehi crossed again, and Kane outflanked the goalkeeper to put the scoreline in front of goal.
At full-time, England 2-1 Slovakia reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship for the sixth time and extended their unbeaten streak against Slovakia to 22 years. Slovakia, a small country of 5.4 million people, was defeated but their performance earned respect.