England were drawn in the easy draw in the knockout stages and were considered to have a great chance of reaching the final. However, the Three Lions had to work hard to equalise in the 90+4 minute and take the match into extra time before Kane scored the decisive goal to send England into the quarter-finals.
Goals: England: Bellingham (90+4′), Kane (92′)Slovakia: Schranz (25′)
England went through a very disappointing group stage and coach Gareth Southgate was criticized for his conservatism in arranging players on the field. However, in this match, the British strategist made a change when young midfielder Kobbie Mainoo was assigned to start from the start for the first time at EURO 2024. This is the only change for England compared to the draw with Slovenia. Meanwhile, coach Francesco Calzona of Slovakia kept the same squad as in the last match, a 1-1 draw with Romania in the final match of the group stage.
The Three Lions, with their talented players, are a name that received high praise from experts, but were faced with a Slovakian team that played like crazy right after the opening whistle. Coach Calzona’s students do not have any reservations and even though the team holds the ball much less than their opponents (25% compared to 75% in the first half), they are the ones who create the goals. Stormy opportunity in front of Jordan Pickford’s goal.
Slovakia proactively defended and proved extremely dangerous on counterattacks. One of them was concretized into a goal in the 25th minute. After the situation, the ball was raised from the home field to center striker David Strelec and this player made a smart pass for Ivan Schranz to cross. penetrated the penalty area before skillfully flicking the outside of his right foot to beat Pickford to open the score.
Schranz opened the score with a skillful flick of the outside cheek
For England, despite losing the match, coach Southgate’s team was almost deadlocked and lacked ideas in deploying the attack. In the first 45 minutes, Tam Thu did not have a single shot that hit goalkeeper Martin Dubravka’s goal and dangerous plays only came from the finishing efforts of Mainoo or captain Harry Kane but not enough to create a goal. .
In the second half, England continued to dominate and soon found the net of Slovakia, but Phil Foden’s close-range shot in the 50th minute was disallowed due to offside. Just 2 minutes later, Kane had a chance to score, but his shot hit the Slovakian defender’s foot and went just wide of the post. After a series of attacks without a goal, England gradually lost their morale against a Slovakian team that played very solidly on their home field.
During the second half, the Slovak players almost did not organize situations on the ball but mainly concentrated on the team in their own half. The most dangerous situation came in the 54th minute, when Strelec took advantage of Kyle Walker’s mistake and took a shot from the midfield line when he observed Pickford rising, but the ball narrowly missed the post.
Bellingham’s superstar moment saved England
In the final minutes of the match, England pushed the entire squad to attack and had very good situations. However, Kane’s header hit the post in the 78th minute and Declan Rice’s shot hit the post in the 81st minute. It seemed like England would follow Italy home early, but in the 4th minute of extra time of the match, Bellingham had a goal. The moment the superstar made a bicycle kick in the penalty area, it equalized for England to send the match into extra time.
Excited after the goal, England quickly took advantage of the Slovakian players’ slump to score in the second minute of extra time. After Eze’s half-pass and half-shot, Toney headed the ball far away and Kane immediately swooped in to head the ball back, raising the score to 2-1 for England.
Kane scored a golden header for England
In the remaining time of the two extra periods, England actively played solidly and gave the game to Slovakia. However, the official 90 minutes of chasing the ball exhausted Slovakia’s physical strength, causing them to not create any truly dangerous moves except for Pekarik’s close-range shot that went over the crossbar in the last minute of the first extra period. In the end, England maintained their 2-1 victory to secure a ticket to the quarterfinals to face Switzerland.
Football (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier (Palmer 66′); Rice, Mainoo (Eze 84′); Saka, Bellingham (Konsa 106′), Foden; Kane (Gallagher 106′)Slovakia (4-3-3): Dubravka; Pekarik (Tupta 109′), Vavro, Skriniar, Hancko; Kucka (Bero 81′), Lobotka, Duda (Benes 81′); Schranz, Haraslin (Suslov 61′), Strelec (Bozenik 61′)
