The Belgian national team surprisingly lost to Slovakia at Euro 2024. The following are interesting notes from this match.
Belgium faces Slovakia on matchday 1 of Group E Euro 2024, Monday (17/06/2024). Slovakia won this match at the Frankfurt Arena with a score of 1-0.
Slovakia’s goal was scored by Ivan Schranz. Belgium scored two goals through Romelu Lukaku but it was disallowed.
This result places Slovakia in second place in the Euro 2024 Group E standings with three points. Meanwhile, Belgium is in third place.
A number of special notes were written after Belgium’s match against Slovakia. Following are the details.
Interesting Notes on the Belgium vs Slovakia Duel
Belgium suffered their first defeat in the group stage at the Euros since losing 2-0 to Italy in 2016. They had won five in a row in the group stage before today’s defeat.
Slovakia have won their last four competitive international matches. It was their best winning streak in a competitive match since five consecutive wins between October 2016 and September 2017. It was also their third win in eight games at the Euros (D1 L4).
Ivan Schranz’s seventh-minute goal was the fastest goal Slovakia has scored in a major tournament and his fourth goal in 23 games for his national team.
Kevin De Bruyne created four chances in this match for Belgium, bringing the total to 40 chances he has created at the Euros. Since 1980, only Luis Figo (42) and Cristiano Ronaldo (41) have created more chances in the finals.
Belgium missed four big opportunities defined by Opta in this match. It was the first time they had done so in a Euro match since 1980 against Spain (also four failures).
In the last two Euro tournaments, only four players have managed six or more dribbles in a single match, two of them being Belgium’s Jeremy Doku (8 vs Italy in 2021, 6 today).
At the age of 20 years and 237 days, Zeno Debast became the third youngest Belgian player to start at the Euros. He is behind Enzo Scifo in 1984 (18 years, 115 days) and Jeremy Doku in 2021 (19 years, 25 days).
Slovakia included three players in the starting XI who are 35 years of age or older – Peter Pekarik (37), Juraj Kucka (37), and Martin Dubravka (35). They are the second country in Euro history to do so after France at Euro 2008.
