17th June, 2024
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Slovakia pulled up the first upset at Euro 2024 after 1-0 shocking victory over Belgium on Monday in Group E of their encounter.
Ivan Schranz scored the only goal of the match for Slovakia seven minutes into the encounter. He was in the right place at the right time to get to the rebound inside the box and gleefully rifled the ball low inside the right post.
In the 21st minute, a great strike from Leandro Trossard near the edge of the box had the keeper scrambling but flew just over the bar.
In the 40th minute, Lukas Haraslin met the lofted pass inside the box with a well placed shot towards the right side of the goal, but Koen Casteels pulled off a fantastic save to deny him.
Romelu Lukaku, in the 56th minute ran onto a loose pass inside the box and released a tremendous shot towards the top right corner. However, Martin Dubravka anticipated the shot and made a brilliant save, forcing their opponents to concede a corner.
The resulting corner was whipped into the box and Romelu Lukaku buried the ball into the back of the net from a Amadou Onana knock down, but the referee ruled the goal offside after VAR review.
In the 63rd minute, Johan Bakayoko was the first to arrive to a rebound inside the penalty area and unleashed a quick low strike towards the middle of the goal that beat the keeper. One of the defenders, however, made a superb goal-line clearance.
In the 86th minute, Lois Openda teed up Lukaku inside the box and he curled the ball into the left side of the net and past Martin Dubravka. Again the goal was ruled out for a handball in the build up.