Slovakia’s hopes alive for 2018 World Cup in football

On Sunday, the Slovak national football team defeated Malta 3:0, in its last qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Adam Nemec scored two goals and Ondrej Duda one in front of almost 18,000 spectators in Trnava. Thanks to this win, as well as a 2:2 draw between Scotland and Slovenia, the Slovaks finished second in their F group and can hope for an additional qualifying round in November. All now depends on matches in other groups due on Monday evening. Slovakia need at least one draw from the Wales-Ireland and Ukraine-Croatia matches. Other options for Slovakia include Serbia's defeat by Georgia, and Greece's failure to beat Gibraltar, and at the same time Bosnia and Herzegovina's victory in Estonia. The team's coach, Ján Kozák, praised the team's improvement compared to its previous qualification which resulted in it going through to the European Championship. "Then we played from secured defence and waited for the opponents' mistakes, however, in this qualification starting with the home match against Scotland, we tried to succeed by playing our style."