Last chance to take fate into your own hands. Top the group and advance to the B-Division of the Nations League. The Slovakian national team will have an autumn match in Sweden on Saturday.
The football math is clear – if they win, they will achieve their promotion goal. If they draw, only a miracle will help them. If they lose tomorrow in Stockholm’s Strawbery Arena, they will definitely miss out on direct promotion.
“Again, sorry about that Euro. I am English, but now I wish you good luck,” smiled the Englishman who accompanied the Slovak journalists from the Stockholm airport to the modern football arena.
“40,000 people are expected to come,” he said.
For the hosts, who did not start at this year’s European Championships, it is the match of the year. Considering the quality they have, it’s rather a surprise. When looking at the teams in the C-division of the League of Nations, the prevailing feeling is that they are there by mistake.
They have enormous strength, in the attacking pair of Isak – Gyökeres they currently have one of the best offensive teams in the world. Its value is about 145 million euros.
It will be a very difficult match for the Slovaks. No easier than meetings at the Euro against Belgium or England. Francesco Calzona and László Bénes also know this, and they answered journalists’ questions after arriving in Sweden.
“Of course, we know about their offensive power, it’s unbelievable. Therefore, we have to be careful in defense in order to dull their quality as much as possible,” declared the Italian coach.
And his recipe?
“Order in defense. No fear. And at every opportunity to play vertically and tear their defense.”
The Slovak representatives did not travel to Sweden in full. Peter Pekarík recently joined the injured Kuck and Haraslín. Stanislav Lobotka, who is just getting started after a few weeks out, is also questionable.
They are all experienced players and leaders. Will the team miss them on the field in such an important match?
According to Calzon, the Slovakian cabin is very strong, he called the aforementioned footballers “historical” figures from the point of view of their performance in the national jersey, but he is convinced that the cabin will produce new leaders in such a case.
When he spoke of them, he also turned towards Lászlo Bénes.
“We were competitive in every match, whether it was a friendly match, League of Nations, qualification or European Championship. This is very good for Slovak football.
Of course, we are missing some important players now, but I believe in this team. The footballers, who have not had much space so far, have convinced me that they deserve it.”
Calzona believes in this team, but if he wants to advance, he really has nothing else left. Only a win will guarantee him advancement. When asked if such important matches excite him more, he answered as follows:
“I am proud that we can play such matches. The move forward is obvious, I dare to say that in the last year and a half we played a balanced game with every opponent and when someone was able to push us in some parts of the match, it was not because we played badly, but because the opponent he had tremendous quality.”
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
