- Romania draw with Slovakia to finish top of Euro 2024 Group E
- Belgium finish second after clinging to 0-0 draw against Ukraine
- Ukraine crash out, with Slovakia claiming place in last 16 in third
Romania emerged shock winners of Group E at Euro 2024, with Belgium clinging onto the second automatic knockout place and Slovakia following the pair through to the next round in third.
In a desperately unfortunate twist of fate, Ukraine finished bottom of the group and will exit the tournament despite accumulating the same number of points as Romania.
Remarkably, all four teams ended up with four points from their three games.
Romania and Slovakia played out a 1-1 draw, which was good enough for both teams to progress regardless of the result in the other game. Ondrej Duda handed Slovakia the lead midway through the first half, with Razvan Marin going on to equalise from the penalty spot soon after.
For Romania, this is their first time making the knockout stage of a tournament since Euro 2000.
The clash between Ukraine and Belgium had much more riding on it, and was tantalisingly balanced at 0-0. The Ukrainians twice came close to winning it late on, which would have launched them into first place and consigned Belgium to early elimination.
Such were the fine margins at play, the opposite happened.
Belgium had goalkeeper Koen Casteels to thanks for sparing their blushes and keeping the chance alive for the last remnants of the golden generation to finally claim international silverware.
Ruslan Malinovskyi was inches from an ingenious goal straight from a corner that almost caught out Casteels at the near post. Fortunately for Belgium, he reacted just in time and was able to beat the ball away from on the goal-line.
Ultimately, the game didn’t really spark into life until the closing stages and, of anyone, Georgiy Sudakov looked capable of making the crucial breakthrough. The Shakhtar Donetsk youngster is being touted for a big summer move and almost delivered one of the moments of the tournament in stoppage time when he embarked on a fabulous run into the penalty area.
Agonisingly for Ukraine, the eventual shot was straight at Casteels when, either side of the goalkeeper, it would have given his country the win and a place in the last 16.
