Belgium vs Slovakia Full Match EURO 2024

Having co-hosted way back in 2000, it took Belgium 16 years to make it back to a UEFA European Championship, but this is now their third finals in succession, with each of the last two seeing their fabled ‘golden generation’ reaching the quarter-finals. Yet, a group stage elimination at the 2022 World Cup was a wake-up call, and there’s been a much more youthful squad selected by manager Domenico Tedesco, who’ll be leading the Red Devils in a major tournament for the first time.

Perhaps helped by no longer carrying the pressure of great expectation, this Belgian squad have adapted quickly to life under Tedesco and are yet to taste defeat in their 14 matches since his appointment in February 2023 (W10, D4), while only England in March’s 2-2 draw at Wembley have managed to breach the Red Devils’ goal across their past six matches.

Slovakia are also making their third successive appearance at the Euros, having debuted as an independent nation back in 2016. They did win their opening game of the 2020 edition against Poland, but still suffered elimination at the groups after following it up with two defeats. That eventually cost manager Štefan Tarkovič his job, replaced by Francesco Calzona who has helped them piece together an impressive qualifying campaign which included just two defeats – both against Portugal (W7, D1).

Calzona’s side head into the tournament in good form, unbeaten in three friendly matches (W2, D1) with the last two delivering dominant 4-0 wins against San Marino and Wales. That means they should be hopeful of securing a first-ever success over Belgium in what will be the first meeting between the two since a 2-1 defeat for Slovakia back in February 2013 (D2).

Key battle: Romelu Lukaku continues to do what he does best, scoring goals for Belgium. His recent double against Luxembourg extended his international record to 85 – he ranks as the second-highest European men’s international goalscorer behind only Cristiano Ronaldo. Trying to keep him out this time will likely be Slovakia goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka who helped keep the clean sheet against Wales, and who has only conceded once in four H2Hs against Lukaku.

Hot stat: Just three of Belgium’s past 12 Euros group stage matches saw both teams score.