Slovakia's Disappointment Lost 1-2 To England, Ivan Schranz: This Is The Third Goal, But What's The Point?

Slovakia was defeated by Jude Bellingham's beautiful goal (photo: eufa.com)

JAKARTA - Slovakia had to swallow bitter disappointment after losing 1-2 to England in the last 16 of EURO 2024 on Sunday, June 30, at the AufSchalke Arena, Gelsenkirchen. This tense match ended in England's dramatic last-minute victory, leaving a feeling of sadness and deep regret in the Slovak camp.

Ivan Schranz, Slovakia's striker who scored the third goal in the tournament, expressed his vacuum over the feat.

"This is my third goal in this tournament, but what's the point? It should be a beautiful, great moment, but we lost in the last second. However, we certainly have no reason to be angry. We will face this, but maybe we will regret it for life. We may not have the opportunity like this again to rewrite history, I'm sure it will take a very long time for everyone to regret it," Schranz said.

Milan kriniar, captain of Slovakia, also couldn't help but feel sad to see tickets to the last 8 run out in the final minutes of the match.

"It's hard to find words, we're all very sad. We're very close to the next round. If we continue to represent Slovakia in this way, we'll probably have more beautiful moments in front of us. England have quality, they put pressure on us and then suddenly Bellingham's goal came. It was painful that we conceded in the last second. We might only be 30 seconds from the win," he said.

But as a non-seeded team that was able to force England to work 120 minutes hard they were quite proud. "I'm really proud of the whole team. It's an incredible journey and I also want to thank the fans. We are ready to rewrite Slovakia's history but, unfortunately, the results ended differently. However, I hope we will come back stronger from today," said the Slovak captain.

Slovak coach Francesco Calzona also expressed his pride for his team. "I feel proud, we played a great game against the world-class team and one of the favorites. We gave England a little chance, we almost qualifyed. Unfortunately, we didn't make it. In extra time, we spent half the time on the opponent's territory. I'm very proud of my team."

Calzone added, "It is an honor to train these players. They make differences on the pitch and I am very grateful to have them."

"We conceded a goal when there were only a few seconds left, by a player who played for Real Madrid. It was a matter of a few centimeters and we were punished. Maybe we can keep it better, but that's what happened," said the coach.

Despite being disappointed, Slovakia could walk with its head held high after appearing impressive and showing a strong character in this tournament. The players, coaches, and fans hope that this team will rise stronger and be ready to face challenges in the future.

"I want to say once again how proud I am of my team. I told them they had done a great job, they were fantastic. We were on par with all our opponents, we played attacking football and we had chances to score goals. I am very proud of them, they are obviously all very disappointed because we are very close to achieving it, but this is football," said Calzona.