Russia vs. Slovakia: Score and Twitter Reaction from Euro 2016

Slovakia's Marek Hamsik reminded the world that he is one of the brightest stars at Euro 2016 after scoring a brilliant goal and assisting another in Slovakia's 2-1 win over Russia.

First-half goals from Vladimir Weiss and Hamsik were the difference for Slovakia, who took one crucial step closer to advancing to the knockout phase after an opening-game loss to Wales. 

Denis Glushakov's late goal for Russia gave them a fighting chance, though they weren't able to find the miracle equaliser.

It was a historic win for Slovakia, as Bleacher Report UK tweeted:

And Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers praised Slovakia for their triumph:

At times, Russia seemed to dominate. They held 62 per cent possession, outshot Slovakia 15-9—though Slovakia held the advantage in shots on goal, 3-2—and earned six corners to their opponents' five, per ESPN FC.

Russia certainly looked like the better side early in the game, and they nearly scored the first goal in the 28th minute on the counter-attack. 

Artem Dzyuba played Fedor Smolov into a pocket of space outside of the box with a neat pass, leaving Smolov with plenty of room to take his shot. He promptly ripped a right-footed effort towards the left post that beat goalkeeper Matus Kozacik but spun just wide. 

From there, however, Hamsik and Slovakia took over.

Against the run of play in the 32nd minute, Hamsik lofted a deep outlet pass over the Russian defence to a streaking Weiss down the left flank. Weiss deftly cut inside onto his right foot, sidestepping two Russian defenders and leaving himself free to perfectly place a curling effort past an outstretched Igor Akinfeev.

Indeed, Weiss' footwork left the Russian defence looking silly, as Sam Wallace of the the Telegraph noted:

Hamsik was just getting started, however.

In the 45th minute, Weiss played a short corner to Hamsik, and Slovakia's star took over from there, cutting in onto his right foot and absolutely blistering a shot that hit the far post and deflected back into the opposite side of the goal. 

It was another reminder of the talent and impact of Hamsik, as David Amoyal of ESPN FC pointed out:

Weiss and Hamsik each scoring and assisting the other's goal was a fairly rare occurrence at the Euros, as Match of the Day noted:

But Russia weren't quite done.

After being stymied by Slovakia's defence for much of the second half, the Russians finally broke down their opponents. A clever bit of buildup play culminated in Oleg Shatov racing down the left edge of the box towards the touch line. He lifted a smart cross back into the middle of the box, where Glushakov met it with a powerful header to the bottom-right corner that beat Kozacik.

Another late goal from the Russians—they equalised in the 92nd minute against England in their Euro 2016 opener—left Jeff Borzello of ESPN wondering if the country simply preferred to save their best play for the dying moments:

Indeed, that goal set up a frantic finish from the Russians, with Slovakia holding on for dear life. But Russia didn't have the final bit of magic needed to mount the comeback, and Slovakia took all three points.

For Slovakia, the win put them in a fantastic position to advance. According to Paul Carr of ESPN, either a win or a draw against England on Monday should see them through to the next round, though they could even advance with a loss depending on the group's other result.

Russia, meanwhile, now find themselves in a dicey situation. The team were already warned that any further violations or incidents from their supporters would lead to their disqualification from the tournament after Russian fans rioted over the weekend.

That didn't stop one fan from lighting a flare in the stadium, per Owen Gibson of the Guardian: 

Even if UEFA doesn't take action against Russia, the team are now facing elimination. Anything less than a victory over Wales will likely result in the country failing to advance to the next round.

Post-Match Reaction

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Everyone was praising Hamsik after his performance, including his manager.

"He has matured as a person and as a player at Napoli—he is ready to play for a very big club," Slovakia coach Jan Kozak said of his star player after the match, per Luke Reddy of BBC Sport.

Napoli probably aren't thrilled with that assessment, but it's hard to argue against Kozak's analysis. Hamsik played like a superstar against Russia.

Kozak also analyzed the match in full.

"The match was very close and tense; nobody wanted to open up space and concede," he said, per Reddy. "At halftime we said it was only 2-0, we had things under control for a time, but we got tired. The last 10 minutes seemed to last a very long time."

Russian manager Leonid Slutsky was left disputing that he picked a poor starting 11, meanwhile, after Russia were so uninspiring until late in the match. 

"I wouldn't say that because if the plan we had at the beginning had been executed, and if we had scored the first goal, it would have been a different game," he said, per Reddy. "After we went behind, we had to change our plan, especially the system in midfield."

Still, it's hard to argue that Russia won't need a different plan against Wales. With their tournament lives at stake, the Russians will need to do something different after two games where they didn't really come to life until late in the match.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.