The pace of the day slowed down when Slovakia took the field against Ukraine.
At the end, Slovakia snatched a winner against Ukraine after 36 minutes of rather eventless football with very few clear-cut chances. It was almost like a wake-up call for Ukraine and they successfully managed to turn up the pace of the game for the last few minutes, but failed to find an equaliser. The final score was 1:0 to Slovakia.
Next Kazakhstan were up against Austria. Kazakhstan missed a gilt-edged chance in the 2nd minute of the game, but their aggressive start was rewarded 3 minutes in after a strike from Darkhan Yussupov. It was no surprise when Kazakhstan eventually found a second goal in the 16th minute, making it 2:0, as they clearly dominated the first half of the game.
Austria made a bright start to the second half, but struggled to find the back of the net. With five minutes to play and staring in the face of defeat, Austria desperately needed a moment of magic to avoid their second loss. The miracle didn’t happen; Kazakhstan stood strong and kept the two-goal lead until the end.
“When we played against Montenegro we thought they were the best team of the Group. But now that we played Kazakhstan, we have to admit they are even better, a completely different level” stated Austria’s Dominique Taboga after the game.
The day continued with Group G’s Montenegro and Latvia facing each other on the pitch. Aleksandar Simic opened the scoring and put Montenegro ahead in the 15th minute of the first half. The score stayed 1:0 until the break.
Aleksandar Nenadovic added a second goal to Montenegro’s credit after 30 minutes. And the same man scored the team’s third goal with 6 minutes remaining. In the last minute of the game both teams managed to score one more goal making the 5:1 final score.
Montenegro will face Kazakhstan on Thursday at 5 p.m. to decide how is going to take the top place in Group G.