The national team of Poland lost its first game at EURO 2020 against Slovakia with… The team trained by Paulo Sosa opened the scoring in favor of their geographical neighbours with an own goal and suffered the last 30 minutes with one player less on the pitch before scoring the intertemporal 1-1 and conceeding the second and game winning goal by Milan Skiriniar.

Both teams started prette solid with Marek Hamsik on slovak side and Robert Lewandowski on the polish one. The former Napoli captain wasted a free kick from a very promising position, while the top goal scorer of the Bundesliga got stopped two shots by Slovakia’s goalkeeper Dubravka. A few instants later the ball landed inside of the net for the first time: in this case Wojciech Szczesny was the unlucky one carriying the ball with his right shoulder inside the goal after Mak’s shot from six metres (0-1). After taking the lead, Slovakia kept getting its opponent under pressure. Especially with Juraj Kucka who missed the target curtly (27′). Lewandowski, in the meanwhile, could not tie in to his services with Bayern Munich this season. In fact, it was Starkovic’s team that attacked constantly, keeping the lead until the end of the first half.

It took the Polish only 27 seconds after the kickoff to score the equalizer: Karol Linetty put upon a carlessness of the slovakian defense to beat Dubravka from 7 metres. The goal gave a lot of confidence to the team in red and white. It was Linetty again who had the chance to take the lead, saved by Dubravka (51′). Comparable with the powerplay known from Ice Hockey, the game was played only in the slovakian half until minute 62: Grzegorz Krychowiak, already booked, was sent off after a harsh foul on Hromada.

Considering the majority of players on the pitch, Slovakia was able to take control of the game: Haraslin (68′) hit the external net before Milan Skriniar scored the second goal for Slovakia after a corner kick (69′). The team led by “Lewy” was demanded but their reaction failed to appear, except for one single chance by Europe’s best striker (88′) and a last shot by Bednarek. So, it was Slovakia who concluded the surprises and conquested the first three points.