Slovakia scouting report: The ex-coffee salesman plotting England’s downfall

England will undoubtedly be the favourites for their round of 16 meeting with Slovakia at Euro 2024, but they must not be overconfident. Slovakia are potentially tricky opponents for Gareth Southgate’s team, and there are plenty of reasons for England to be concerned.

Lobotka the star

In Stanislav Lobotka, Slovakia boast the exact sort of player that England have been craving for years. A deep-lying playmaker who is comfortable on the ball, Lobotka knits the team together with his passing and has been a key man for Napoli in recent seasons.

The 29-year-old was named player of the match in two of Slovakia’s three games in the group stages and has completed 172 of his 184 passes so far in Germany. His passing accuracy of 93 per cent is higher than any England midfielder, while he has also run further than any England player.

Xavi Hernandez, the Barcelona and Spain legend, has said that Lobotka has the quality to play for Barcelona, and there are suggestions that the Catalan giants were previously interested in signing him.

Lobotka’s technical class helps to make Slovakia’s midfield one of their biggest strengths. In a 4-3-3 system, he is flanked by Juraj Kucka (who had a brief spell at Watford a few years ago) and Ondrej Duda, who spent half of the 2019/20 season in the Premier League with Norwich City.

So far at Euro 2024, Kucka has had eight shots on goal — as many as Harry Kane — and has registered two assists. The quality of the midfield trio allows Slovakia to play a passing game, when possible, and they are certainly not a long-ball team. England will have to work hard to win the ball back and cannot afford to be disjointed in their pressing game.

Former coffee salesman

Francesco Calzona, Slovakia’s manager, is one of five Italian coaches at Euro 2024. A former coffee salesman and amateur coach, he has spent much of his coaching career working with former Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri.

Calzona was Sarri’s assistant at Empoli and Napoli, and then also worked as a Napoli coach under Luciano Spalletti more recently. Calzona actually managed the Napoli first-team in the second half last season, on a caretaker basis, alongside his role with Slovakia.

Upon his appointment by Slovakia in August 2022, when he had strong support from Napoli and Slovakia legend Marek Hamsik, Calzona became the first coach of non-Czechoslovak origin in the national team’s history. Under his guidance, Slovakia went on to enjoy an impressive qualifying campaign in which they lost just two games — both to Portugal, and both by just a single goal.

Calzona made it clear before this tournament that he expected his players to attack the competition in their own way. “The only thing I told the team is that I would like them to play good football,” he said. “Going onto the field against any opponent, we try to play. If the opponent proves to be superior to us, we hold up our hands, give them a round of applause and go home.”

His journey from life as a coffee sales rep to an international manager makes his one of the most extraordinary stories of the tournament. “That period made me understand many things, it was a fantastic experience,” he has said. “Still some customers call me asking for coffee.”

Solid defence; light attack

Slovakia are an old team. The average age of their starting lineup at this tournament so far has been 30, while only two of their starters so far are under the age of 25.

This experience helps them in defence, though, where Newcastle United goalkeeper Martin Duvraka is the first-choice between the posts. The star of the backline is centre-back Milan Skriniar, who is a genuinely top-class defender. Skriniar moved to Paris Saint-Germain last summer after six seasons with Inter Milan.

At left-back is David Hancko, another player of considerable talent. Hancko was a key part of Arne Slot’s Feyenoord team in recent seasons, starting every match in all competitions during the 2023/24 campaign. He has been linked with a move to Atletico Madrid.

If there is an obvious deficiency in the Slovakian squad, it is in attack. None of their forward players have particularly strong goalscoring records on the international stage, with midfielders Kucka and Duda the only two players to come into the tournament with more than seven international goals to their name.

Ivan Schranz has since impressed with two goals in three games at Euro 2024, but he is far from prolific. Playing for Slavia Prague last season, he scored only one league goal in Czech Republic’s top flight.

Slovakia harnessing the spirit of Klopp

England may have brought a piece of Wembley with them to Germany, but Slovakia will be able to harness the spirit of Jurgen Klopp when they try to conjure up another stunning upset at the European Championship.

Francesco Calzona’s side, who have already claimed Belgium’s scalp at the tournament, have been training at Mainz 05’s Bruchwegstadion, where Klopp is still revered from his time there as a player and – more importantly – the club’s longest-serving manager.

It was at that ground that he laid the platform for Mainz’s rise from 2. Bundesliga also-rans to an established top-flight team and the construction shortly after his departure of a new 34,000-capacity home, the Mewa Arena, which now sees Bruchwegstadion play host to their youth fixtures.

Having drawn with Romania on Wednesday to qualify for the last 16, Slovakia returned to their team hotel to begin plotting what would be their greatest triumph since they became an independent nation.

They are staying at the five-star Hyatt Regency Mainz on the banks of the Rhine in the city’s old town, a far cry from England’s secluded 400-acre Spa & Golf Resort Weimarer Land hotel in Blankenhain.

While Gareth Southgate’s side have paid a reported £850,000 for the exclusive use of a 94-room luxury site that includes a training pitch featuring the same grass as Wembley, three golf courses, a basketball court built especially for their stay, a robot waiter named Robbie, and a ring of steel to keep out intruders, their opponents are sharing their accommodation with ordinary members of the public.

A team spokesperson told Telegraph Sport Slovakia had taken over two floors of their own hotel, with security having been hired to prevent unauthorised access to them.

But some of the Hyatt Regency’s other 260-plus rooms are currently available on other floors for £370 a night, while prices drop to as little as £110 after the Euros.

The team spokesperson declined to comment on whether Calzona was staying in the presidential suite, which has been booked up until the end of the tournament and features a conference and kitchen area, a king bedroom, a work area, and a marble bathroom with a large tub, walk-in shower and private sauna. It is available for almost £1,200 a night after the Euros.

The Hyatt Regency is attached to a 19th-Century fort, Fort Malakoff, which is now used as a bar in the hotel.

England’s arrival at their resort saw them greeted by personal touches, with handwritten notes, familiar scents and their favourite sweets waiting for them in their five-star hotel rooms.

But the Slovakia team spokesperson said there had been no such extravagances lavished on their own squad.

That does not appear to have hindered the progress of the side 40 places below England in the Fifa rankings after they beat Belgium in their opening match in what was their greatest victory since they stunned defending champions Italy at the 2010 World Cup.

Having lost their subsequent last-16 tie there to the Netherlands, as well as being defeated by Germany at the same stage of Euro 2016, even that win 14 years ago would be topped by sending faltering England crashing out of the Euros on Sunday.