Ex-Romania international makes bold claim on secret arrangement with Slovakia to help both teams qualify for Euro 2024 knockouts
Former Romania international Danut Lupu has suggested that his national side are set to play out a draw against Slovakia at the Euro 2024 as part of an agreement.
Ahead of Romania's last Group E encounter against Slovakia at the Euro 2024, all four sides in the group are locked on three points. Romania relish a goal difference (GD) of +1, while Slovakia has a GD of zero.
According to SPORTbible, Lupu has asserted that a stalemate has been arranged between his nation and Francesco Calzona's side to ensure both sides qualify for the last-16 stage. He has suggested both teams will pass the ball around in a 0-0 draw in Frankfurt.
With all sides on three points in Group E, a draw for either team would have them on four points from three games. So, whoever is third in the aforesaid group would advance as one of best third-placed teams.
Romania boast a fine head-to-head record against Slovakia as they have won four and drawn five of their last nine matches against them.
Domenico Tedesco claims his Belgium side will focus on beating Ukraine at Euro 2024
Ahead of his team's final Group E clash of the Euro 2024, Belgium boss Domenico Tedesco has stated that they will aim to beat Ukraine on Wednesday (June 26). He told reporters (h/t Reuters):
"We are going out to win the game. We can't start to calculate or speculate, we want to win this game. In the last seven minutes of the game, maybe we know what we want to do to keep a result but from the beginning there is no issue, we go to win. Not smart from our side not to know it but not from the beginning. We have to focus on our game and then the result is coming automatically."
Tedesco, who has been Belgium's manager since February 2023, said:
"We need to be confident, normally there is no reason not to be confident but in football, you can never be sure. We are sure we need a big game tomorrow because Ukraine is a big team. We saw several games of them, not just during the qualifiers against England, but now also games at the Euros and before the friendly [0-0 draw] against Germany, I think they were the better team."
Belgium are currently on three points from two outings having lost 1-0 to Slovakia and won 2-0 against Romania in their Group E matches.
Ukraine, on the other hand, lost their Euro 2024 opening contest 3-0 to Romania before registering a comeback 2-1 victory against Slovakia.