Ukraine’s Euro 2024 campaign has been rejuvenated by Roman Yaremchuk’s spectacular finish, as they overcame a 2-1 deficit to defeat Slovakia and significantly raise their hopes of making it to the semifinals.

The squad from the war-torn country performed incredibly well to even make it to the finals, and Mykola Shaparenko’s early second-half equalizer on Friday was the payoff for their determined response after trailing to Ivan Schranz’s header.

Then, with ten minutes remaining, Yaremchuk skillfully controlled a ball that was dropping over his head and pushed home the winning goal.

Beyond the unexpected first-round victory over Belgium, Francesco Calzona’s Slovakia would have advanced to the knockout stages with a second victory, but now their chances of qualifying for a second round of the Euros as an independent nation beyond 2016 are in jeopardy.

Romania, like Slovakia and Ukraine, has three points and will play their second group E match on Saturday against bottom-seeded Belgium.

After Slovakia had made by far the better start, Schranz opened the score in minute 17 with a deft downward header at the far post.

After Andriy Lunin of Real Madrid was substituted for Anatoliy Trubin due to mistakes in the first game’s 3-0 loss to Romania, the Ukrainian goalkeeper had to make two early stops against Schranz and Lukas Haraslin.

More German rain, a common sight in recent games, dropped on Dusseldorf, but Mykhailo Mudryk came near and Oleksandr Tymchyk struck the post as Ukraine gained momentum.

At the 54th minute, Shaparenko completed a brilliant team move that began on the edge of Ukraine’s box, giving Ukraine a well-deserved equalizer.

Yaremchuk then struck after both sides had grown weary.

Later in Berlin, Austria emerged victorious against Poland 3-1, putting the team led by Robert Lewandowski in danger of being eliminated.

Austrian goals from Gernot Trauner, Christoph Baumgartner, and Marko Arnautovic were spectacular, but Poland’s first-half goal from Krzysztof Piatek tied the score at one.

Poland now needed the Netherlands to defeat France in a subsequent group D encounter on Friday in order to escape elimination from the group stage.

Lewandowski, who was injured and missed Poland’s first game against the Netherlands, entered the game in the second half but was booked after only five minutes of play.