Win no comfort for Slovakia

Slovakia's hopes of reaching the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals are all but extinguished despite a late winner against Estonia.

Tough call
With Portugal having sealed first place in Group 3, Slovakia needed Russia to drop points against Luxembourg to revive their hopes of grabbing second place tonight, but with Russia winning 3-0, they now need to win by at least four goals against the Russians in their final qualifier on Tuesday to progress.

Nervous finishing
Slovakia began their game against Estonia with plenty of attacking intention but were unable to make their dominance count as they struggled in front of goal. Captain Milan Ivana had a seventh-minute effort ruled out for offside, but Blažej Vaščák should have made a fine chance count two minutes later.

Estonia equalise
With Slovakia goalkeeper Dušan Perniš rarely troubled, Vašcák finally gave the home side the lead on 37 minutes, slotting home from just inside the box. But their good work was cancelled out after the break when Perniš could only parry Jarmo Ahjupera's header into the path of Konstantin Vassiljev who scooped in the rebound.

Last-gasp winner
The home side continued to pile on the pressure, but they may have thought their luck was out when Erik Jendrisek missed an open goal from three metres after 70 minutes, but in the dying moments of the game, substitute Tomáš Labun crossed for defender Roman Konečný to score from close range.