FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Group E - Slovakia v Romania - Frankfurt Arena, Frankfurt, Germany - June 26, 2024 Slovakia players pose for a team group photo before the match REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo BLANKENHAIN, Germany - Gareth Southgate's hesitant England team will need to finally make their presence felt in Euro 2024 against Slovakia in the last-16, or the underdog Slovaks will fancy their chances of upending their opponent. Southgate's richly talented squad arrived in Germany as a tournament favourite but optimism around the 2020 runners-up fizzled with three drab group games mired in uncertainty over the best line-up, with the coach conceding an "experiment" in the early matches had failed. Slovakia, on the other hand, kicked off their campaign by shocking No.
3 Belgium 1-0, a team ranked 42 places above them. "The English have quality, but every opponent they have played were able to torment them," Slovakia midfielder Ondrej Duda told TV Markza. Slovakia boss Francesco Calzona called his team the Cinderella story of the group stage after their win over Belgium, while minnows Georgia also played well above expectations by stunning Portugal 2-0 to prove no team can be counted out.
So, while England fans cheered Southgate's team landing on the kinder side of the draw, with an easier route to the final, that is only paper. "I think everyone has seen in this competition that there is not a favourable side of the draw," England defender Marc Guehi told .