Serbia clearly fancy sticking around after all. The buildup to this tense, muggy, increasingly watchable encounter was dominated by their threat to pull out of Euro 2024 but nobody had told Luka Jovic to throw in the towel. They would have been gazing down the barrel of another major tournament letdown if the substitute had not intervened in the most dramatic way possible, sending Slovenia’s players crumpling to the floor by equalising with the final act of the game.
What glorious late chaos this was, and how unlikely it had felt during a closing spell that Slovenia were seeing out in relative comfort. As five minutes of added time dwindled, a number of Serbia’s supporters had decided their best bet for entertainment was to shower Jan Oblak, along with any of his teammates who ventured within range, with bottles. A smoke bomb had recently been set off for good measure when, with the referee Istvan Kovacs checking his watch one last time, Serbia loaded the box in search of salvation.
