Slovakia started their first major tournament with a win after shocking an uninspired Poland 2-1 through Milan Skriniar's second half winner in their Group E curtain raiser in Saint Petersburg on Monday.
Slovakia looked comfortable in the first half. They opened the scoring in the 18th minute after Robert Mak's solo run and effort dropped off Wojciech Szczesny's near post before bouncing off the goalkeeper's right shoulder into the goal.
Poland needed some time to recover, and restored parity 27 seconds after the restart as Karol Linetty finished off Maciej Rybus' build-up work.
The Polish team increased the pressure but suffered a setback at the hour mark when Grzegorz Krychowiak was shown his second yellow card and received the marching orders.
Slovakia showed no mercy and utilised their numerical advantage moments later as Poland failed to clear a corner, allowing Skriniar to drill the decider from 14 meters into the top left corner to stun Poland.
Poland pressed frenetically for the equaliser. Slovakia's defines, however, stood firm and secured the top spot in Group E for the moment.
--IANS
akm/qma
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor