Romania's Razvan Marin scored a first-half penalty to cancel out Ondrej Duda’s headed goal for Slovakia as the teams played out a 1-1 Euro 2024 Group E draw on Wednesday (Jun 26) to both reach the last 16. All four sides in Group E finished on four points, with Romania earning top spot on goals scored from Belgium, and Slovakia ending third, ahead Ukraine on goal difference.
Romania and Slovakia must wait until the completion of the group stage on Wednesday to learn their last-16 opponents, but Belgium will face France in Duesseldorf on Monday.
Romania reached the knockout stages of the Euros for the first time since 2000, while for Slovakia it will be a second appearance in the last 16 after 2016, when they lost to Germany.
The game in Frankfurt was played in a feverish atmosphere, with the fervour in the stands matched by the helter-skelter nature of a match that was not high on quality, but had plenty of entertainment and intrigue.
The teams came into the game knowing a draw would be enough to send both through, and there was plenty of talk in the buildup of the potential for them to contrive that, something the coaches denied vehemently.
Certainly, there was no lack of energy and endeavour, which slowed only towards the end of the game.
