Euro 2024: trio of games await as Belgium face crunch Romania clash – live
Three games open at 2pm BST with Georgia v Czech RepPlayer interactive | And you can drop Xaymaca a mail
The game itself seemed rather peaceful when viewed in the context of the tournament. We’ve already heard chants about the killing of Serbians by Croatia and Albania fans and we’ve listened to Kylian Mbappé and Marcus Thuram’s criticisms of France’s National Rally party.
The game was always likely to be overshadowed by the political context … when the draw was made no game seemed as politically charged as this. When the nationalist Robert Fico became prime minister of Slovakia last year, he vowed to reduce aid to its eastern neighbour while pursuing a policy of greater alignment with Hungary, whose prime minister, Viktor Orban, has been the most overtly pro-Vladimir Putin voice among EU leaders. Fico’s ally Peter Pellegrini was elected as president in April. Last month, Fico was shot twice at close range while meeting the public in Handlova, about 120 miles north-east of the capital, Bratislava. Police arrested Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old poet who has spoken openly of his opposition to Fico’s attempts to curtail the freedom of the press, to downgrade anticorruption bodies and to reduce support for Ukraine.
