Slovak national football team eliminated from Euro U21

Despite winning two matches and losing only one in the group stage, the Slovak national football team at European Championship in the U21 category will not be continuing in the play-out stage. The reason is that not all teams placed second in the group stage could continue and the Slovaks were dependent on the results in the remaining groups. Their fate was sealed in the match between Germany and Italy ending 0:1. Before the match it was clear that this result would move both opponents to the next phase of the tournament. "The performance of the Germans and Italians was a big shame." said the coach of the Slovak team Pavel Hapal. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also believes that the result of the match raises doubts as to whether it was played with respect to fair play and he plans to send a protest letter to the UEFA, said his spokesperson Beatrice Szabóová on Sunday.