England: Slovakia boss Francesco Calzona reignites Declan Rice row with 'referee's bodyguard' dig

Slovakia boss Francesco Calzona has reignited his row with Declan Rice and blamed the England midfielder for their spat on Sunday.

Rice was involved in a heated altercation with Calzona after England beat Slovakia 2-1 after extra-time to reach the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.

Calzona pushed Rice as he went to confront the officials after full-time and the Arsenal midfielder reacted angrily and had to be pulled away.

The 55-year-old head coach played down the incident after the game and said Rice had apologised.

But Calzona has now hit back at Rice, telling Sky Sport Italia: “Rice was standing close to the referees, I wanted to ask the reason for the lack of added time considering the time-wasting done by the English, he shouted at me and I replied in a similar tone.

“He is a great player, perhaps he shouldn’t have been there acting like a bodyguard for the referee. He could’ve avoided that, but he did apologise to me straight after that.”

Rice did not address the spat but said after the victory: “There's that inner fight and spirit in us [that] a few Slovakian players before the game said that we didn't have. We've got that togetherness, we proved that tonight.

“We'd do anything to protect this manager, protect each other. We'll keep going and keep fighting and what we've got as a group tonight showed out there. It's an honour to be a part of it and we're going to give it everything.”