Let’s face it, much of the pre-match talk was dominated by Russian fans and the violent incidents they’ve caused in France. But at the end of 90 minutes, they were almost entirely silenced as Slovakia celebrated their first ever victory in a European Championship!
It was a classic case of both teams shutting each other out in the early stages of the game, with both sides playing to their strengths. After 30 minutes on the clock, Marek Hamsik found Vladimir Weiss with a well-weighted long ball. He showed great composure by side-stepping Vasili Berezutski, before beating Igor Akinfeev and give Slovakia an important lead. They extended their advantage right on the stroke of half-time, courtesy of Hamsik’s thunderous curling shot from a tight angle.
Denis Glushakov managed to pull one back for the Russians with a free headed goal, but it wasn’t meant to be as Leonid Slutski’s men are looking at the prospect of an early exit from the tournament. Here are the top 3 players that impressed the most on the night:
Marek Hamsik
It was another mercurial display from the Slovakian playmaker with an assist and a goal. He showed great awareness to find Weiss who had decent amount of space on the left flank. Hamsik then topped that off with a sublime goal of his own, leaving Akinfeev with zero chance to save his well-curled shot.
Vladimir Weiss
The left-winger was lively down the flanks throughout the game and he constantly tried to get behind Igor Smolnikov. It wasn’t till the 32nd minute when his hard work was paid off by scoring the opening goal for Slovakia.
Artem Dzyuba
The big center forward showed great strength by holding up play and winning most of the aerial duels, as expected from a player of his stature. He clearly deserved a goal for that sort of performance, but at least his efforts won’t go unnoticed by the Russian supporters.
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