Yahoo Sports Calzona: ‘England time-wasting and scared of Slovakia’
Italian tactician Francesco Calzona accused England of ‘time-wasting and obstructionism’ during their extra time win over Slovakia at EURO 2024. ‘They were scared of us and we deserved to go through.’
The coach got into a row with midfielder Declan Rice after the final whistle, when he was trying to complain to referee Umut Meler, shoving the England player away.
“The lads worked so hard and followed what I asked of them to the letter,” Calzona told Sky Sport Italia.
“We allowed them a bit more in the second half, but that was to be expected against a team of this level. In extra time, it was one-way traffic, we pinned them back and they relied on time-wasting and obstructionism.
“I was angry because one extra minute of stoppages with the amount of time-wasting especially from their goalkeeper was not enough.”
Slovakia had been mere seconds away from reaching the quarter-finals, as they were leading through Ivan Schranz’s goal when Jude Bellingham equalised with a stunning overhead kick at the 95th minute.
Harry Kane then nodded in at the start of extra time and England defended for the rest of the half-hour, much to Calzona’s frustration.
“I did not like the performance of the referees at all, but we certainly didn’t lose because of that. We lost because of a couple of distractions, but clearly I am very proud of my team as we played positive football, put in a great performance and I think the people of Slovakia will be proud of that.”
Calzona’s Slovakia dominated England
Although they were the underdogs, Slovakia dominated the match with 63 per cent possession, 16 attempts on goal to 13 and remarkably 712 completed passes to England’s 389.
That Bellingham equaliser was England’s first shot on target of the game.
“We knew that we could not leave space between the lines, we all know what Bellingham can do and had to keep it tight. We had the chances in the first half to kill off the game and it would’ve changed everything.”
Regardless of the result, Calzona and the way he set Slovakia out in this match impressed any neutral watching.
“It is a source of pride to force a team like England to focus only on defending in extra time. That means they were scared of us and in my view we deserved to go through.”
