(Football news) The teams meet in Gelsenkirchen with the goal of securing a spot in the quarterfinals, where the victors will face either the Netherlands or Denmark. 

England, which began this summer’s European Championship campaign with a triumph over Serbia in the Ruhr Valley city, returns to Gelsenkirchen this weekend with the ultimate goal of going one better than losing in the Euro 2020 final.

As Group C champions, the Three Lions avoided a possibly more difficult path to Berlin, where the Henri Delaunay trophy will be awarded in two weeks. Instead, they advanced to the round of 16.

Gareth Southgate’s team secured five points from their matches against Denmark, Slovenia, and Serbia. They drew with the former two after a nervous 1-0 victory against a relatively weak Serbian team.

Despite still being undefeated at Euro 2024, Tuesday’s stalemate with Slovenia sparked an angry reaction from some supporters in Cologne, while many pundits have been critical of a squad that have won just two of their last eight matches.

Southgate – who played both of England’s first two games against Slovakia, during Euro 2004 qualifying – must now cut through the noise and ensure his talented team match expectations.

Neither France, Belgium, Portugal, Germany or Spain will be blocking England’s potential path to the final, but victory on Sunday could set up a quarter-final clash with Italy, who prevailed on penalties at Wembley three years ago.

First, though, the Three Lions will aim to extend an unbeaten record versus Slovakia, having won five of the nations’ six meetings to date: the only time they failed to win was at Euro 2016 – a drab goalless draw in the group stage.

While precedent is certainly not on their side, Slovakia will not be taken lightly by their more illustrious opponents, as an opening win over Belgium proved they are capable of causing an upset.

While the Falcons took just a single point from their next two fixtures, losing to Ukraine and drawing 1-1 with Romania, they edged through by finishing third in Group E, in which each team ended up on four points.

Ondrej Duda scored the goal that put them in front against Romania, and he has since spoken in glowing terms about head coach Francesco Calzona, to whom he ascribes most of the credit for Slovakia’s recent revival.

Throughout the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024, Calzona’s side lost just twice in 10 matches – both times to Portugal – and a more attacking approach ensured their place at the finals.

Slovakia had 37 shots overall – and 13 on target – during the group phase, which were both new national records at a major tournament. By contrast, they produced only two shots on target at Euro 2020.

Interim coach of Napoli for the latter part of last season, Calzona has leaned on experience in his first international job, and the Italian’s starting XIs so far have had a competition-high average age of 30 years and 218 days, with 37-year-olds Peter Pekarik and Juraj Kucka both playing prominent roles.

At their third successive Euros, after appearing for the first time as an independent nation only eight years ago, Slovakia must now break new ground if they are to progress any further, having never won more than one match at a single European Championship.

Also read: Italy will play Switzerland in the Round Of 16 of the Euro 2024