Slovakia unexpectedly beat Poland. It was helped by a harsh red card

Slovakia successfully managed the opening match of the European Football Championship and defeated Poland. Robert Mak scored the opening goal, Karol Linetty equalised and Milan Škriniar scored the decisive goal.

Robert Lewandowski had two shots early in the match but could not beat Martin Dúbravka. Ondrej Duda scored for the Slovaks, hitting the side netting from distance.

In the 18th minute, the Slovaks celebrated. Robert Mak dribbled into the penalty area and shot towards the near post to open the scoring. He was helped by Wojciech Szczesny, who unluckily knocked the ball into the net and the goal was ruled an own goal.

The goal helped the Slovaks a lot, suddenly they were everywhere and in the 27th minute Juraj Kucka came close to scoring a second goal. The Poles tried to do something with the game, but by the end of the first half they had no more chances. They went into the booths with a 1:0 scoreline for the Slovaks.

Poland equalised a minute after the change of sides. Karol Linetty finished off a nice combination with an unsuccessful shot, but the ball still went into the net. This gave the Red and Whites confidence and they created two more good chances, but neither Linetty nor Kamil Glik got the ball past Dúbravka this time.

In the 62nd minute, Grzegorz Krychowiak made it difficult for Poland to win. He stepped on Jakub Hromad’s foot and received a second yellow card. In the 68th minute, the Slovaks took advantage of a power play. Milan Škriniar scored from the edge of the box.

Poland went for at least a point, with Lewandowski’s header missing in the 88th minute and Jan Bednarek narrowly missing the right post from a turn three minutes later. Karol Swiderski could have been the hero in the third minute, but he did not beat Dúbravka. The Slovaks took three points in their first Group E match with a 2-1 win.

Source: UEFA