Al Gharafa’s star attacker Vladimir Weiss played a major part in Slovakia’s 2-1 victory over Russia in Euro 2016 on Wednesday.
Weiss scored the opening goal for Slovakia on the 32nd minute, latching onto a long ball from Marek Hamsik, calmly beating two Russian defenders before curling a shot into the goal. In the process the Gharafa man became the first player from the QSL to score at the European Championships.
The former Lekhwiya attacker also turned provider on the stroke of halftime for Marek Hamsik, who unleashed a fierce shot to give Slovakian a 2-0 lead. Weiss was substituted on the 72nd minute, after which Russia grabbed a late goal to set up a grandstand finish. Thankfully, Slovakia held on to register their first ever win in the tournament.
Weiss and Slovakia will now go into their third and final group game against England on Monday (June 20).
The match will be the first time that Slovakia will face England at an international competition, a tie which Weiss admitted he was looking forward to in an exclusive interview with QSL online.
The QSL has three international players representing the league at the 2016 European Championships. Along with Vladimir Weiss, Al Gharafa have striker Krisztian Nemeth who started in Hungary’s opening 2-0 win over Austria. Al Sailiya defender Dragos Grigore completes the trio and has started both games for his native Romania, who lost their opening game to France and draw with Switzerland 1-1 in their second game of the championships.