Belgium 0-1 Slovakia
History was made in this Euro 2024 encounter in Frankfurt.
For never has a nation ranked so far below an opponent managed to pull off victory in the European Championships.
Yet that’s what Slovakia, ranked 48th in the world, have just achieved against Belgium who, according to FIFA, are the third best team in world football.
The Euro 2024 betting odds, or this SBOTOP observer for that matter, never saw this coming.
Highlights of the game
Why would they.
There’s so much talent in this Belgium team and that was evident as Manchester City duo Jeremy Doku and captain Kevin de Bruyne both started, alongside Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard.
With Romelu Lukaku leading the line up front, it meant the country’s record goalscorer and De Bruyne became the first Belgian players to appear in six major tournaments.
But, as it turned out, it wasn’t to be, particularly for Lukaku, twice denied by VAR for what he felt were second half equalisers.
On both occasions, the ruthless number nine had the ball in the net only for the ‘goals’ to be chalked off for infringements in the build-ups.
Lukaku had been lively from the outset, forcing a fine save from Slovakia goalkeeper Martin Dubravka just three minutes in.
Then the moment which will live with Slovakian football fans forever.
They didn’t care that it came against the run of play as Ivan Schranz netted his first international goal since October 2021 – when he scored against Croatia in a World Cup qualifier – converting a rebound after Koen Casteels saved a Juraj Kucka effort when Belgium carelessly lost possession.
At that point, there were 83 minutes remaining and the smart money was still on Belgium.
The longer the contest wore on though, the more of a shock seemed possible.
Lukaku was denied one way or the other, Trossard was too and, even when substitute Johan Bakayoko had beaten Cateels, he was kept out by a superb goalline clearance from Slovakia’s David Hancko.
This Belgium showing was a far cry from their performances at the 2018 World Cup which ultimately led them to claim the bronze medal and even saw off five-times world champions Brazil.
Perhaps we should not have been surprised.
Prior to this, Belgium had only come back to win just one of their nine European Championship games in which they’d gone 1-0 down, a 2-1 victory against Denmark at Euro 2020 (drawn one, lost seven).
The Euro 2024 highlights all belonged to the improving Slovaks as they put a dent in what is a new chapter in Belgum football.
They had proved very solid in qualifying, finishing second to Portugal in the group, while pre-tournament friendlies suggested they were prepared to fight hard and so it proved.
In recent years supporters have not had much to celebrate after especially bad results in the Nations League (they finished third in their group having lost at home to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and drawn with Belarus).
However, this is their third straight Euros and they have now firmly kicked into gear following the dismissal of the heavily criticised Stefan Tarkovic after some frustrating and lethargic performances in the summer of 2022.
This is their finest moment – so far! They will enjoy it.
Key statistics
This was Belgium’s first defeat since losing to Morocco in the 2022 World Cup.
Slovakia, who have never made it past the last 16 in any European Championship, have only lost one of their last eight games in all competitions.
At the age of 20 years and 237 days, Zeno Debast was the third youngest Belgian player to start a game at the European Championship, behind only Enzo Scifo in 1984 (18 years, 115 days) and Doku in 2021 (19 years, 25 days).
In comparison, Slovakia included three players in the starting XI who were 35 or older – Peter Pekarik (37), Kucka (37) and Dubravka (35). They are only the second nation in European Championship history to do so, along with France at Euro 2008, who named Gregory Coupet, Claude Makelele and Liliam Thuram in their XI for games against Romania and Holland.
What’s next?
It’s Romania next for Belgium on Saturday night (June 22) in Cologne.
The day before, Slovakia face the Ukraine. A meeting between two countries who historically have had good relations, the backdrop of which recently changed to potentially make a game which looked like standard early-tournament porridge anything but.
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