Slovakia v Romania: Euro 2024 – live

Never before has a European Championship group had four teams all on three points after two games. But here we are.

Pos	Team	P	GD	Pts
1	Romania	2	1	3
2	Belgium	2	1	3
3	Slovakia	2	0	3
4	Ukraine	2	-2	3

This means a few things, but the most pertinent for this game is thus: no matter what the result is between Belgium and Ukraine, if Slovakia v Romania ends in a draw, both will qualify for the knockout stage, with Slovakia finishing on four points, which will certainly be enough for them to finish as one of the four best third-placed teams.

This could be problematic, and there will doubtless be dissenting voices if the two teams play out a boring goalless draw to guarantee passage to the round of 16, but both head coaches of Slovakia and Romania have been falling over themselves that they will be trying to win the game.

Slovakia head coach Francesco Calzona: “We are professionals. We know that the draw might help us to qualify for the last 16, but that doesn’t mean anything because we want to play our own match. We deserve this opportunity to progress as we have played good football.”

Romania head coach Edward Iordanescu: “We want to win the group. If we win the group at least theoretically you have a certain advantage, especially in terms of extra rest days and also of the opponents. But the most important thing is to qualify, this is what our objective is.”

Hmmmm. Let’s hope for a belting game.

Kick-off: 5pm BST/6pm in Germany.