The first match of the day ended with the victory of the Ukrainians who, unlike the Slovaks, searched for the three points until the end. And so, the Italian coach, who found himself one step away from the round of 16, will have to play it out on the last day against Romania.
Francesco Calzona’s Slovakia had qualification for the round of 16 in their hands, but he took his foot off the accelerator too soon. Once in the lead, thanks to Ivan Schranz’s early goal, in fact, the Slovaks handed over the ball to the opposing team.
And that’s exactly what Ukraine needed which, when it saw itself on the brink of the abyss, could do nothing but react. And they succeeded, overturning their opponent (1-2) thanks to the goals scored in the second half by Mykola Shaparenko and Roman Yaremchuk who, awaiting the match between Romania and Belgium, make the Group E standings very short.
Lunin out
The bad defeat suffered on his debut against Romania cost Viktor Tsygankov the starting shirt and, above all, Andriy Lunin, a distant relative of the brilliant goalkeeper who dragged Real Madrid to the final, then won with Thibaut Courtois in goal, of Champions League.
On his side, Calzona entrusts your spinal column under the care of the usual Milan Skriniar and Stanislav Lobotka, called to always keep the concentration of their teammates high, close, after the unexpected but deserved triumph against Belgium, to a historic qualification for the direct elimination phase.
Schranz scores the first
AND It is precisely the Slovaks who are making the best start coming close to scoring the lead twice in just a few seconds after ten minutes of play. Anatoliy Trubin, however, proves that his technical commissioner he did well to entrust him with the defense of his goal.
The Benfica goalkeeper first blocks Lukas Haraslin’s shot from outside and, immediately after, Ivan Schranz’s point-blank shot. However, Trubin can do nothing five minutes later, when it is Schranz himself, left alone in the middle of the penalty area by Ukraine’s defendersto give the Vibo Valentia coach’s team the lead on an assist from Haraslin.
And to say that Schranz he hadn’t scored for three years for Slovakia before the start of the European Championships and instead, in a few days, he has already put two on the scoresheet. He is the first Slovakian player to score more than one goal in the most important continental tournament for national teams.
Ukraine is there
Having conceded the first goal, Ukraine is forced to wake up also because it understands that it is ever closer to the abyss. And so, although Slovakia continues to keep its pressing high (or, perhaps, precisely because of that), Rebrov’s boys finally manage to cross the center line ball and chain.
Artem Dovbyk created the first danger in Martin Dubravka’s area, freeing himself from a tile of two rival defenders and shooting the target safely into the central goal. The Ukrainian striker, however, had not taken into account Peter Pekarik who managed to avoid a goal with a slide.
The second part of the first half is entirely yellow and blue. Shortly after the opportunity given by Dovbyk, Oleksandr Tymchyk came close to scoring the equaliser. His diagonal shot, however, hits the post. On Mykhailo Mudryk’s incursion, however, it is Dubravka who frustrates Ukraine’s ambitions.
Overturned
Just before half-time, however, it takes all the Trubin centimeters to prevent Haraslin from finding the net to make it 2-0 for Slovakia. Lunin’s replacement’s extension to his right confirms that Rebrov made the right decision.
A save that takes on even more value, when Mykola Shaparenko manages to find, with first intention, Oleksandr Zinchenko’s low center shot, the deserved equalizer. This time, Dubravka can only watch as the Ukrainian midfielder’s left-footed shot swells the net.
The second post of the day for Ukraine arrives a quarter of an hour before the end of the match, when Mudryk, fed by Andriy Yarmolenko, hits the woodwork to the left of the goalkeeper of a Slovakia team who, however, settled for the equalizer too soon and she realized it too late, when Roman Yaremchuk finds the net and turns it over.
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