Slovakia traveled to Cardiff City Stadium after their first win in the EURO 2020 qualifiers against Hungary. Today's match against Wales is the second time Jan Kozak and his team have played in Group E.
As for the Welsh team, this is their opening match in the campaign to qualify for the EURO finals next year, so the Reds are determined to find a win. Wales entered the match against Slovakia without Ramsey's services due to not being able to recover from injury in time. Therefore, coach Giggs could not field the most satisfactory lineup to welcome the visitors.
With home advantage, coach Giggs and his team quickly pressured the opponent in the first minutes. The ball had only rolled for 5 minutes, Dubravka's goal had shaken. Starting from a mistake from Pekarik, Daniel James stole the ball and fired a dangerous shot outside the penalty area to open the score for Wales.
With an early goal, coach Giggs directed his students to play slowly, keep the distance from the formation to give up control of the ball to Slovakia, then wait for the opponent's mistake to organize a quick counter-attack, launching a penalty kick.
This way of playing of the home team caused Slovakia many difficulties. Although coach hapal's team controlled the ball better, the opportunities created by the away team were not as many and not as dangerous as the home team.
In the second half, thanks to tactical adjustments from coach Kozak, Slovakia played more smoothly. The away team gradually gained a lot of fluidity in playing style and created many shots on goal by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey.
In the 54th minute, Slovakia organized a midfield attack, Mak cleverly passing the rusnak to set an offside trap against goalkeeper Hennessey. The number 10 player of the home team made a chip, but could not beat the home team's goalkeeper, missing a very good opportunity.
As time passed, Slovakia made two consecutive substitutions to bring the match back to balance but failed. Slovakia controlled the ball well, but the visitors could not organize truly bright attacks, in order to break the close connection of the Welsh defense.
When the midfield and strikers were quiet, Slovakia's defense also failed to fulfill its mission. The away team's full-backs were constantly threatened by Welsh midfielders and wingers, threatening Martin Dubravka's goal.
Fortunately for Slovakia, the brightest star of Wales played poorly and unlucky, so the away team did not have to concede another goal. In the end, Wales won 1-0 against Slovakia, thereby temporarily ranking 2nd in Group E.
