Russia-Slovakia tickets still available at Euro 2016

Vladimir Weiss scores the opening goal for Slovakia. Slovakia captain, Martin Skrtel, will be pivotal in defense. The match at the 50,000-capacity Stade Pierre Mauroy is not quite sold-out.

Artem Dzyuba, making the most of his size to win physical battles, found Smolov who had the time and space to send a low drive from outside the box just centimetres wide of the post.

Martin Skrtel (right) and Jan Durica of Slovakia celebrate at the final whistle of the Euro 2016 group B preliminary round match between Russian Federation and Slovakia at Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille on Wednesday.

Russian Federation have only managed to score twice in their last four meetings with Slovakia but the scorers – Alexander Kerzhakov (2014) and Alan Dzagoev (2011) – were left out of Russia’s Euro 2016 pool.

Romania and Switzerland met in their second game at the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals – a match Swiss fans will remember with much more fondness as the nations reconvene in UEFA EURO 2016 Group A. Previous meetings show that the sides have met 12 times, each recording five wins and two draws.

England and Wales meet on Thursday in Lens, which is only 30 kilometres (around 20 miles) from Lille.

Slovakia needed a victory to advance to the knockout stages, and it got it, winning 3-2.

Slovakia top the group on three points ahead of Wales on goal difference.

Although the nature of Russia’s defeat by Slovakia raises questions about the true level of England’s performance in Marseille – Roy Hodgson’s side drew a game they should have won comfortably – England know a win over Wales will assure them of a place in the round of 16.

Much has been made of Russian Federation being poor against England but I thought Roy Hodgson’s side were outstanding.

“Hamsik is already at a big club”, Juraj Venglos pointed out on Radio Crc.

Slovakia opened the scoring shortly after the half hour mark when former Manchester City winger Vladimir Weiss collected a sumptuous pass from Napoli’s Marek Hamsik, cut inside the Russian Federation defence and fired past Igor Akinfeev.

A shot corner on the left was played to the Partenopei star, who cut back onto his right foot before beating Igor Akinfeev with an audacious shot from an acute angle that went in off the far post.

“Marek has matured as a person and as a player at Napoli”, Kozak said, when asked if the midfielder could be one of the players of the tournament. The Napoli playmaker picked out Vladimir Weiss with a long ball over the defense. It was Glushakov of Spartak Moscow who reduced the arrears in the 80th minute, heading home after Shatov had played a one-two with Roman Shirokov and crossed from the left byline. When pressed on potential ramifications, he added: “I repeat, I didn’t see it”.

For the second consecutive match, late pressure rescued a patchy France side that is struggling to live up to its pre-tournament billing as one of the favorites.