Belgium will challenge the French team in the round of 16 of the Euro, Romania finishes at the top of group E

Like a taste of reunion. The Blues will face Belgium, held in check by Ukraine this Wednesday (0-0), Monday in the round of 16 in Düsseldorf (6 p.m.) in a classic of European football. This will be the third confrontation in six years between the two neighbors in a major tournament, after the semi-finals of the 2021 Nations League (3-2) and the 2018 World Cup (1-0), all both won by the French team.

Belgium – Ukraine: the Red Devils still down

To challenge Ukraine, Belgium took out its sky blue jersey with a white collar and its brown shorts, in homage to the famous comic book character Tintin. But the resemblance ended there. Far from the hectic adventures of the young reporter with the blond puff, Domenico Tedesco’s team did not really keep us in suspense this Wednesday (0-0).

Uninspired and far too clumsy, the Belgians rarely worried the Ukrainians, curiously without great ambitions and who were advancing without Mikhaïlo Moudrik and Olexandre Zinchenko, on the bench. Looking for his first goal at Euro 2024, Romelu Lukaku was unable to deceive Ukrainian goalkeeper Anatoliï Troubine with two too-soft cross shots (7th, 65th), just like Yannick Ferreira Carrasco in a half-volley (73rd) .

Eliminated from the competition with this draw, Ukraine woke up too late. Sergei Rebrov’s team livened up the debates in vain in the last ten minutes, notably forcing Koen Casteels to make a fine save from a direct corner from Ruslan Malinovski (83rd).

Slovakia – Romania: the Romanians finish on top

Slovaks and Romanians went blow for blow in this third and final day of Group E (1-1). If Edward Iordanescu’s team started well with attempts from Andrei Rati and Ianis Hagi (10th), they were surprised by Ondrej Duda (24th). With a beautiful header coming back from a brushed cross from Juraj Kucka, the Hellas Verona player opened the scoring.

Milna Skriniar and her partners only led the race for 13 minutes, the time it took for Razvan Marin to deceive Martin Dubravka with a penalty generously awarded by referee Daniel Siebert (37th). But the sun bathing the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt am Main gradually gave way to capricious showers. In torrential rain, it was the Slovaks who finished the match better (64th, 66th), without however managing to score.