The first match that was played in the official history of the founding Slovak Republic (1939-1945) was played in Bratislava against Germany on the 27th of August 1939. The match concluded in a 2-0 victory for Slovakia. Following after the Second World War, the national football team was absorbed to be part of the national team of Czechoslovakia and for more than fifty years Slovakia did not play any matches in its own country. Through this time they also contributed a number of important athletes for that Czechoslovak team, which included most of the team which took home in the UEFA Euro 1976 (8 of the 11 players who beat West Germany in the final were Slovak).
The Slovakia's first official match since returning to independence was a 1-0 win in Dubai against the United Arab Emirates on 2 February 1994. Their first game on Slovak turf was a 4-1 victory over Croatia on the 20th of April in Bratislava on April 20, 1994. Slovakia lost their most humiliating defeat since their independance (6-0) on the 22nd of June 1995 in Mendoza against Argentina. Their most significant wins (7-0) came with Liechtenstein the year 2004 in addition to San Marino (twice) in 2007 and 2009.
Slovakia tried to qualify for a major tournament as an independent side for the first time during Euro 1996 qualifying, but ended up in third place within their group of qualifying just behind Romania and France with wins against Poland, Israel and Azerbaijan twice. In 1998's World Cup qualifiers, Slovakia placed 4th in the six team team with five wins, one draw , and four losses. Their first four matches in this group were all victories and one of them was against their Czech neighbors, enabling the team to reach their most impressive FIFA World Ranking to date 17th.
Slovakia took part during it's first FIFA World Cup for the first time as an independent country after finishing the top spot in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 3 ahead of Slovenia, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland and Poland. On the 14th of October, 2009, they secured their qualification with a 1-0 win away against Poland. On June 24, 2010, in the actual tournament, Slovakia finished second in the group stage, after beating the current champions Italy in a game that ESPN described as "epic" in the match. The game featured three goals scored in the final minute of the game and two goals scored from Italy and one from Slovakia and an unofficial goal scored by Italy that was ruled offside by "the most difficult of decisions". The result sent Slovakia into the knockout phase and eventually eliminated Italy which was at the bottom of their group. The result of this game resulted in the fact that, this was for the very first time during World Cup history, both winners of the previous tournament were eliminated from the initial round: champion Italy and second-placed France.
The round-of-16 Slovakia faced against the Netherlands in the round of 16 being 2-0 down, and then scoring a late strike from the penalty spot of forward Robert Vittek, the last goal of the game, in the 2-1 loss. In spite of being eliminated the goal re-introduced Vittek up to top position on the scoring charts at the top of the charts along with David Villa until Villa himself scored against Portugal during Spain's win 1-0 at the same stage in the competition.
To qualify for Euro 2012 qualification, Slovakia was selected against Russia as well as The Republic of Ireland, Armenia, Macedonia and Andorra. The positive season during the campaign in South Africa boosted team performance in the lead-up to qualifying games that began on September 1st with 1-0 victories against Macedonia at Stadion Pasienky and Russia away. In October, however they suffered a lopsided defeat by Armenia (3-1) while they played 1-1 with their home country of the Republic of Ireland at home. In February of 2011 Slovakia was awestruck by a 2-1 loss in a friendly match against Luxembourg and were able to only beat the group's minions Andorra only by one goal. Although they had more chances to score, Slovakia earned a goalless draw against Ireland away. After scoring chances in a scoreless initial halftime, Slovakia lost four times to Armenia in a game which ended the team. In the two final games of the group, Slovakia was beaten at home by Russia (1-0) and then drew 1-1 in Macedonia which ended up in a low fourth position and scoring just seven goals throughout the game. For only the second time in the Euro 1996 qualifying process, Slovakia completed a qualifying session having a negative goals difference. In the wake of this the manager Vladimir Weiss left his job after four years of service replacing two team members Michal Hipp as well as Stanislav Griga, though both were later fired due to their poor performance. In late June the an ex- Czechoslovakia national team player Jan Kozak became the head coach. He followed up the disappointing qualification campaign with a triumph at Bosnia and Herzegovina which was followed by two losses in Bosnia as well as Greece.
To qualify for Euro 2016 qualification, Slovakia was selected in a group with Spain, Ukraine, Belarus, Macedonia and Luxembourg. Slovakia began its qualifying campaign by winning 1-0 against Ukraine at Kyiv. On the 9th of October, 2014 Slovakia defeated Spain with a 2-1 surprise victory and secured the first spot. Slovakia's victory of 3-1 against Belarus established their position as the group's leaders. Then, they beat two-to-one against Macedonia at Zilina's Philip II Arena, beat Luxembourg by scoring 3-1 in Zilina the next day, and defeated Macedonia with a score of 2-1 on the 14th June 2015 in Zilina. The following matches included an 2-0 loss against Spain as well as a goalless draw against Ukraine and an incredibly 0-1 loss at home against Belarus. The team qualified by beating Luxembourg 4-2. They took second spot, qualifying for the very first European Championship.
Slovakia was selected in the group B in Euro 2016 alongside England, Russia and Wales. Slovakia started their tournament with a match against Wales with a 2-1 win. Ondrej Duda netted Slovakia's first ever goal at the European Championship in an eventual defeat of 2-1. Slovakia won the next match against Russia by 2-1, thanks to goals scored by Vladimir Weiss III and Marek Hamsik. Then they drew the game 0-0 with England to make it into in the 16th round as the finest third-placed teams. They were eliminated in the round of 16 by the world champions Germany after a 3-0 defeat.
In the course of qualifying in preparation for 2018's FIFA World Cup, Slovakia was placed into UEFA Group F. They were third in the group, after the final match ended in a loss of 1-0 to Scotland and they moved into second position. Slovakia took their group match , 3-0, against Malta and then surpassed Scotland in the process. They were unable to beat Slovenia however they were unable to secure an opportunity to play-off spot as other teams' performance resulted in Slovakia was ranked as the group's worst runners-up.
Slovakia was unable to make it to qualifying for UEFA Euro 2020, only being able to qualify with a tough win away against Northern Ireland. In being drawn alongside Spain, Sweden and Poland in the group E., the team expected that the Slovaks were going to be the breadbasket of the other teams, but they stunned the world with a triumphant opening match against Poland with a score of 2-1. Then, Slovakia would be broken down by Sweden after which they were defeated by Spain 5-5, and ended up third but with the lowest goal differential due to scoring goals by themselves due to their poor performance. Slovakia were eliminated for the very first time.
