Ukraine’s first victory, Poland’s elimination, hacker attacks and political slogans: how did the eighth day of Euro 2024 go?

The Polish national team was the first of the teams participating in Euro 2024 to lose its chance of reaching the playoffs. This was reported by a Lenta.ru correspondent.

After losing to the Netherlands in the first round of the group stage, the Poles faced the Austrians, who also started the tournament with a defeat. Another unsuccessful match deprived one of the teams of chances to reach the playoffs.

The Polish team lost to Austria with a score of 1:3. The first half ended in a 1:1 draw, but in the second half Austria scored two unanswered goals. An interesting moment occurred towards the end of the meeting – Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny hit Marcel Sabitzer in his own penalty area with his jaw falling. He fell, the referee awarded a penalty, and Marko Arnautovic converted it. Gernot Trauner and Christoph Baumgartner also scored goals for the winners. Krzysztof Piatek scored for the Poles.

The star forward of the Polish national team, Robert Lewandowski, spent only half an hour on the field in the second half and did not score any effective actions. He did not take part in the first game at all – it was due to an injury received in a friendly match right before Euro 2024.

The Poles are in last place in Group D with zero points, the Austrians are third with three points and not very clear prospects for reaching the playoffs. In the last round they need not to lose to the Netherlands in order to qualify for exit from the group at least in third place. Let us remind you that in addition to the first two teams from each quartet, four more teams from third positions with the most points will make it to the playoffs.

Ukrainian fans at the match with Slovakia hung a flag with a political appeal

Another day of Euro 2024 was not complete without politics in the stands. Fans of the Ukrainian national team hung the country’s flag with the inscription in English “Give us back the elections.” It was broadcast for about 25 minutes, then it was removed. It is noteworthy that such statements from fans are prohibited by the regulations of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

The Ukrainian national team won for the first time at Euro 2023. Sergei Rebrov’s team was losing to Slovakia 0:1 during the second half, but managed to turn the tide of the match by scoring twice. Mykola Shaparenko and Roman Yaremchuk scored for the Ukrainians, while Ivan Shrants scored a goal for the Slovaks.

After the second round, the Ukrainians with three points took second place in the Group E table, the Slovaks with a similar result on points came in third. Romania is in the lead, Belgium closes the top four. But the last two have a match in hand, and after their fight the situation in the table will probably change.

France and the Netherlands played their first goalless draw at Euro 2024

The eighth game day of the Euro closed with one of the most promising matches of the entire group stage – France played with the Netherlands. The main intrigue before the start of the match is whether Frenchman Kylian Mbappe will appear on the field or not. In the match with Austria, his nose was broken. Almost immediately after this, Mbappe began training in the general group, but with a mask on his face in the colors of the French tricolor. As it turned out, UEFA regulations only allow playing in a single-color mask. And they made another one for Mbappe for the match with the Dutch.

But it was not destined to see Mbappe on the field wearing a mask that evening in Leipzig. Didier Deschamps decided to play against the Netherlands without his main star and kept the striker on the bench until the end of the match. It will come in handy in the later stages of the tournament, where the French are most likely to end up.

The match itself did not live up to expectations, at least in terms of performance, which is still at a very high level at this Euro. Two strong teams played the first goalless draw of the tournament. The Netherlands team scored one goal in the second half, but after watching the video replay, the referee canceled the goal due to offside. The teams scored four points after two rounds of the group stage. France takes first place in Quartet D, the Netherlands are second.

Hackers attacked Polish television again

Polish television suffered another hacker attack during the broadcast of the Euro 2024 match. Spectators of the match between Poland and Austria were injured. “We apologize for the technical problems. We are working intensively on the stability of the broadcast,” Polish television said.

When similar problems were observed during the Poles’ first match against the Dutch, Russian hackers were blamed. “This was a DDOS attack aimed at shutting down a service that allows Polish citizens to watch broadcasts over the Internet. All traces lead to Russia,” Olshevsky said.

Well, fans of the Polish national team remembered Russia today. They shouted insulting chants before the Euro 2024 match against Austria, when an organized crowd marched in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin.