England have been handed a dream route to the Euro 2024 final with Slovakia confirmed as their last 16 opponents.
Georgia’s shock 2-0 victory over Portugal has seen Gareth Southgate‘s men pitted against the Falcons, who they drew against in the Euro 2016 group stage.
Only captain Harry Kane and defenders John Stones and Kyle Walker have remained in the Three Lions squad eight years later.
And none of those started in the drab draw which saw Wales top the group, with Kane a second-half substitute, while Roy Hodgson decided to leave the Manchester City duo on the bench.
As for Slovakia, they have six players still in their squad from 2016, with Milan Skriniar, Ondrej Duda, Juraj Kucka, and Peter Pekarik all starting in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against Romania.
It was Duda’s headed effort that earned Slovakia a point to seem the finish third in Group E.
talkSPORT presenter Jamie O’Hara declared, ‘Southgate’s a genius’ on the Sports Bar, having been left buzzing by the challenge of Slovakia at Schalke’s Veltins-Arena on Sunday as opposed to the Netherlands.
Though his co-host Jason Cundy has told England, who topped Group C despite drawing two matches, to ‘beware’ of the danger that Slovakia possess.
O’Hara said: “Another stinkfest coming our way surely, even Gareth Southgate can’t avoid the final now come on, we’ve got an unbelievable chance.”
But keen to stress Slovakia will be no mugs, Cundy remarked: “You look at the route, there is a pathway through to the final. How do we navigate our way through?
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“We could have had the Dutch, we got Slovakia. Now I’ve seen all of Slovakia’s games, they scored the first goal in every single one of their games so far.
“They’re a high press, high intensity, well organised, the second half against Belgium, they rode their luck a little bit, they beat Belgium 1-0.
“[In 2-1 defeat to Ukraine] First half they were excellent, I promise you, they were so good, I don’t know what happened second half, they crumbled.
“This is a game that I feel we can win, of course we can, but this is a team that will have a go, they’re not a sit back and deny you space merchants, they can do that – second half against Belgium they did.
“But they will come at you, and beware, this is not as easy as it sounds.”
England may have struggled on the pitch at Euro 2024 so far, but Southgate will barely be able to believe his luck with almost every result going in his favour in the final group games.
They were confirmed as Group C winners after Denmark were held to a 0-0 draw by Serbia, with a victory to have seen England face hosts Germany on Saturday instead of Slovenia.
And Denmark’s failure to claim all three points has seen England not only avoid Germany in their route to the final, but also France, Spain, Belgium and Portugal.
Didier Deschamps’ Les Bleus side had been expected to be England’s quarter-final opponents providing the pair advanced into the last eight, but they drew 1-1 with Poland on Tuesday, to see Austria top Group D instead.
Pointing out England’s favourable route which could see England face Italy in the quarters and the Netherlands in the semis, O’Hara stated: “Surely now Gareth Southgate, he and the England players would have watched that game [Georgia vs Portugal].
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“He would be sitting down with them in the morning and saying, ‘Lads, right, come on, what a chance we’ve got of getting to a final and being amongst it again.'”
Before adding: “I get it, Slovakia are going to be a good side, they’re going to be well organised, but come on England!
“What a chance that we’ve got, now is the time, you’ve got to go, ‘Put them to bed, what can we do? How do we change it? How do we get past this team?’
“Because we have got an unbelievable chance of getting through it. We could get to the final.”
Despite Slovakia being ranked 45th in the world by FIFA, they boast some truly top class players, which includes Paris Saint-Germain defender Skriniar, Napoli midfielder Stanislav Lobokta and Slavia Prague forward Ivan Schranz.
Lobtoka, who won the Serie A title in 2023, put in a man of the match display against Belgium in their opening Group E fixture – as well as picking up the award against Romania.
Meanwhile Schranz ran Ukraine ragged in the first half of their eventual defeat where he broke the deadlock from close range.
And skipper Skriniar led by example in the crunch clash with Romania, as he completed 77 of his 86 passes from the back, in addition to winning eight duels.
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With Kane not yet firing on all cylinders, he knows he will have his work cut out against the experienced Skriniar.
While England fans – and potentially Southgate and his squad – will be left delighted by facing Slovakia, they know another dismal display could see them crash of the Euros in embarrassing fashion.
As England look to make it back-to-back finals in the European Championship, there can be no room for error in Sunday’s last 16 encounter.
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