Slovak legends criticize Calzona’s statement: another coach would have ended it, the translator may have just mistranslated

Perhaps the worst possible start of the qualifying. The Slovaks drew 0:0 with Luxembourg at the start of their EURO 2024 journey in Germany. In addition to the game and the result, our neighbours also criticise the statements of coach Francesco Calzona.

From the first minutes, the Slovaks did not look like a winning team. The opponent was better for the first quarter of an hour, then the Slovaks missed two promising chances and when they failed to score even in the end from Robert Bozenik’s kick, they took only a point.

There were also passages in the match that belonged to the guests. The Luxembourgers clearly know how to work with the ball, combine in a small space, and they did not look like an inferior selection by almost 40 places in the FIFA rankings.

“If it was a Slovak coach, I guarantee he would have quit after this game. Either you have results or you don’t and you are responsible for them. And this was probably the weakest performance of the five games under this coach,” Ján Mucha said in Sport 1’s post-match studio.

Italian coach Francesco Calzona has fielded an 11-man roster of players who have shone at club level. Spartan Lukáš Haraslín is crushing the Czech Fortuna League, while Robert Polievka from Dunajská Streda is crushing the Slovak one.

That’s why the Slovak public was shocked when the coach mentioned at the press conference that he was satisfied with the performance and the result and that he praised the players. He went on to say that the team is at the beginning of its journey and cannot be judged yet.

“Satisfied? Let’s not joke, he must have been at a different game because I saw something different. If he is happy, hats off to him. We need to congratulate us on the point and move on,” the former national goalkeeper continued ironically.

With the loss to Luxembourg, the Slovaks are forced to defeat rivals Bosnia and Herzegovina at home on Sunday. The latter will go into the match full of confidence after their 2-0 triumph over Iceland.

In any case, the approach of the coaching team is not ideal. When Calzona said at the conference that the Slovaks would lose a similar match against Luxembourg 0:4 in the autumn, it also affected the former great stopper Martin Škrťel.

“Really? Ijust hope the translator got it wrong, otherwise it’s worse than I thought,” Škrťel wrote in his Instagram story.

Source: Sport 1, Instagram