Slovakia 1 Romania 1: Both sides qualify with the draw everyone expected as Slovaks face potential England clash
THE result we all expected.
A draw that sent both teams through.
Razvan Marin’s VAR-awarded penalty, cancelling out Ondrej Duda header for Slovakia, ensured parity and progression.
But it was only in the final few minutes, as the sweltering afternoon made way for a torrential storm straight from a Roger Corman horror film, that the heat went out of this one.
And nobody, NOBODY, should throw even a finger of suspicion at either side after they went at it hammer and tongs for at least 85 madcap minutes.
The final whistle brought celebrations from every corner of the Waldstadion, with Romania finally aware they had ended up top of the group on goals scored.
Joy all round, manic leaps of delight on the pitch and in the stands.
Justifiably, too. For both sides, getting to the last 16 was a triumph, coming top of group E a true feat for Romania and their yellow wall of sound.
And where the conspiracy theorists had enjoyed a field day beforehand, it was the fans who watched a real match that could not be quibbled with.
It was a good one, too, Slovakia setting the pace with two blocked shots inside the first 13 seconds.
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Romania responded, blue-haired right back Andrej Ratiu wriggling through to take aim for the far corner, his shot parried by Newcastle’s Martin Dubravka before Ianis Hagi, son of Romanian legend Gheorghe, blazed the rebound off target.
But Slovakia went in front after 24 minutes.
The ball was spread right and Juraj Kucka, a veteran of the 2010 World Cup win over Italy, swung in a high, hanging ball that Duda gleefully headed down and past keeper Florin Nita.
So much for the “agreed nil-nil”.
Briefly, Slovakia were going through as group winners – and Romania were heading home.
Not for long. Hagi tumbled as he tried to go past left-back David Hancko, with German ref Daniel Siebert initially deeming the foul outside the box.
The first contact certainly was but there was another on the other side of the line, spotted by the VAR booth in Leipzig.
After an age, the spot-kick was given, drilled into the top corner by Marin.
The chances continued. Romania striker Denis Dragus prodded wastefully wide while Haraslin did the hard work but fired straight at Nita.
Dubravka saved from goalscorer Marin at full-stretch and then was relieved as Dragus’ effort flashed over the top before Nita denied David Strelec with his left boot and Haraslin was a whisker wide.
By now it was apocalyptic as the rain lashed down, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
As that eased, so did the tempo. The price of a mistake was now outweighing the rationale for gambling.
Fair enough. They had both given their all.
No deals, no pact. Just shared delight.
