Slovakia Team Preview – Overview
It has taken six years for Slovakia to qualify for another major tournament after announcing themselves on the global stage at the World Cup in 2010. This is the first time they have made it into the European Championship, doing so courtesy of finishing as runners up to Spain in qualifying, a section in which they sent shockwaves through the game when they saw off Spain early on.
Slovakia will be opponents for England and Wales in the opening group but they shouldn’t be written off by any means. If that win over Spain didn’t make people stand up then a recent friendly win over Germany certainly should have done. They have the potential to be dangerous if allowed to be.
Statistics
Best Performance – First Appearance in 2016
Previous Appearances – 0
Qualified – Group C Runner-up
Qualifying Record
P-10 W-7 D-1 L-2 GF-17 GA-8 PTS-22
Fixtures
Wales vs Slovakia – Saturday 11th June, kickoff 17:00 at Matmut Atlantique, Bordeaux
Russia vs Slovakia – Wednesday 15th June, kickoff 14:00 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
Slovakia vs England – Monday 20th June, kickoff 20:00 at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne
Squad
Manager: Jan Kozak
Goalkeepers: Matúš Kozáčik (Viktoria Plzeň), Ján Mucha (Slovan Bratislava), Ján Novota (Rapid Wien).
Defenders: Peter Pekarík (Hertha Berlin), Milan Škriniar (Sampdoria), Martin Škrtel (Liverpool), Norbert Gyömbér (Roma), Ján Ďurica (Lokomotiv Moskva), Kornel Saláta (Slovan Bratislava), Tomáš Hubočan (Dinamo Moskva), Dušan Švento (Köln).
Midfielders: Marek Hamšík (Napoli), Juraj Kucka (AC Milan), Miroslav Stoch (Bursaspor), Vladimír Weiss (Al-Gharafa), Róbert Mak (PAOK), Patrik Hrošovský (Viktoria Plzeň), Ján Greguš (Jablonec), Viktor Pečovský (Žilina), Stanislav Šesták (Ferencváros), Ondrej Duda (Legia Warszawa).
Forwards: Michal Ďuriš (Viktoria Plzeň), Adam Nemec (Willem II).
Tips
As with most sides there aren’t many markets about Slovakia but I’m fine with that because there is only one bet I’m interested in anyway. That comes in the form of their top goalscorer where in the absence of Robert Vittek I believe it is largely all about Marek Hamsik.
The Napoli midfielder is very much the man who makes things tick for this Slovakian side. He is the creator and the chief destroyer and he is one of those players I think will have a big tournament. In terms of dangers to him for the top scorer they aren’t immediately apparent and it could be that Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel is the one who will challenge him.
I’m surprised we can get just under 5/1 on an established player like Hamsik who has 18 goals at international level. If Slovakia offer anything in this tournament it will come through him and I’ll take him to lead Slovakia’s scoring in France.
Tips
WON – Back M.Hamsik Top Slovakia Tournament Goalscorer for a 2/10 stake at 5.75 with NetBet
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016
