After quiet night, Lille prepares fans clashing at Euro 2016

The Napoli attacking midfielder scored a sumptuous goal after he set up Vladimir Weiss for the opener in a 2-1 victory over Russian Federation at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, and admitted afterwards Slovakia have qualification firmly in their sights.

Slovakia’s Weiss scored the opening goal in the 32nd minute, running onto Hamsik’s impressive pass from inside his own half and controlling well inside Russia’s area.

Russian Federation fell behind 2-0, but got one back in the 80th minute with a Denis Glushakov header.

Russian Federation will next face Wales on Monday in Toulouse, while Slovakia plays England at the same time in Saint-Etienne.

UEFA indicated that the flare incident did not constitute a “crowd disturbance” that might trigger the suspended penalty hanging over the Russian team since their supporters charged England fans at the Stade Velodrome. “His performance was superb”.

“Marekiaro” scored a goal and provided an assist in the 2-1 victory over Russian Federation this afternoon. “We are very proud and happy with our first win at a European Championship”, said man of the match Hamsik.

“The match was very close and tense; nobody wanted to open up space and concede”.

Two minutes later, Slovakia took the lead and it was once again brilliant play by Hamsik, who produced a brilliant 45-yard pass into the path of Weiss down the inside-left channel, before the former Manchester City forward cut in on his right foot and curled past Akinfeev.

“At half-time we said it was only 2-0; we had things under control for a time, but we got exhausted”.

In the last minute before half-time, some great pressure from Slovakia.

Slovakia claimed a 2-1 win against Russian Federation to revive their hopes of reaching the Euro 2016 knock-out stages and leave their opponents on the brink of elimination.

“We have four or five days to prepare for that game against the big favourites in the group. I am sure it will be tougher than these two matches”.

Russian Federation manager Leonid Slutsky, who impressed in leading Russian Federation to qualification after inheriting predecessor Fabio Capello’s struggling team, responded by making changes at half-time. Without him it’s hard to see where Slovakia’s openings would have come from, but with him they grabbed a vital 3 points and took a huge step towards qualifying for the second round.

Goalscorer and substitute Glushakov added: “We will have another good opportunity against Wales (on Monday), so we should lift our spirits and get back to where we were”.