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The 2016 UEFA European Championships is being played across France from June 10 to July 10 for the first time with 24 nations across 10 venues in nine cities with the French capital Paris being the only city with two venues in the Stade de France and the Park de Prince.
The defending double champions are Spain, who are three time record champions along with Germany.
GROUP B – Matchday 1
Wales 2-1 (1-0) Slovakia
In a match-up of debutants in Bordeaux, Wales had the better start over the favoured Slovakia, then their superstar Gareth Bale scored off a freekick in the 10th minute after the superstar on the other side Marek Hamsik was denied after a great solo by Ben Davies, who saved before the goalline for his beaten goalkeeper.
Wales after taking the lead had more of the game as the highly rated Slovaks could not find their game. But that changed after the break and a couple of substitutions as newly introduced Ondrej Duda equalised in the 61st minute after Robert Mak had done the spadework.
Slovakia was now closer to scoring a second, but Wales hit back with a substitute of their own in striker Hal Robson-Kanu who scored the winner in the 81st minute of Aaron Ramsey.
Slovakia had one final chance through Adam Nemec in the 86th minute but his header only hit the woodwork and in the end Wales scored their first ever UEFA Euro win.
Carlsberg Man of the Match: Joe Allen (Wales) #WALSVK
England 1-1 (0-0) Russia
In a match-up of experienced tournament sides, the younger Three Lions were the better side over the Sbornaya.
England’s new found combination game was causing problems to the Russians, who also played a lot of mispasses. The chances in the first session fell to Adam Lallana, who missed by a whisker and Wayne Rooney, whose shot was saved by Igor Akinfeev.
After the break Russia were a better side as England lost their grip on the game, but they could score and after about 70 minutes, England suddenly once more had more of the game with Rooney once more denied by Akinfeev in the 71st minute before Eric Dier scoring off a freekick in the 73rd minute in which Akinfeev seems to have taken a wrong positioning.
This meant the final quarter of the game would be Russia pushing for the equaliser and they got it right at the end in added time with their captain Vasiliy Berezutskiy heading in a cross from Georgi Shchennikov to deny England a win in their opener, which they have never won at an UEFA Euro tournament.
Carlsberg Man of the Match: Eric Dier (England) #ENGRUS
