Stanislav Lobotka: "It's great that everyone thinks Slovakia are the outsiders of the group. Our opponents will play under press

Slovakia midfielder Stanislav Lobotka said what he thinks about his team's opening match at Euro 2024 - against Belgium.

"Against Belgium will certainly not be easy. But we know how the opponent will play. And we are preparing for it. Both in offense and defense, we should be as compact as possible.

Of course, we would like to beat Belgium. But it will be great to get a draw.

What is the main individuality in the Belgian national team? There are a lot of them - Lukaku, Trossard, Doku, De Bruyne... In this team there are two or three players from top clubs in each position. We should not focus on individuals, but on the Belgian team as a whole. Even if it loses seven, they will immediately be replaced by seven equally high-quality players. It would be a problem for us to lose four or five players, but not for Belgium.

As for us, it's great that everyone considers Slovakia the outsider of the group. We have nothing to lose, we can play calmly. But our rivals in the group (Belgium, Ukraine, Romania - ed.) will play under pressure, nothing is expected from them in every match but victory - any other result will be considered as a failure. So I like being an outsider. You can get a lot out of a little," SportWeb quoted Lobotka as saying.

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