Slovakia's manager has explained the heated spat he got into with one of England's top stars when the two sides met in the round of 16 at the 2024 UEFA European Championship.
England narrowly avoided a shock early exit from EURO 2024 on Sunday evening, needing a stunning stoppage-time equaliser by Jude Bellingham to force the game into extra-time.
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Slovakia led after scoring in the 25th minute, but Bellingham's moment of brilliance in the 95th minute sparked a complete turnaround, with Harry Kane scoring almost immediately after the starting whistle for extra-time blew to ensure they walk away with a 2-1 victory.
However, at full-time, an altercation broke out on the field between Slovakia boss Francesco Calzona and England's Declan Rice.
When asked about the incident involving Rice, Calzona said that Rice had already apologised after their on-field row, as per the Metro.
"Rice was supposed to go to the referees and say goodbye, and then leave," the Italian tactician explained.
"I had to speak to the referees and he was carrying on, continuing to speak.
"Then he apologised and it all ended there."
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Calzona also made it clear, though, that he was unhappy that what he felt were time-wasting tactics from England towards the end of the game were "not punished" by Turkish referee Umut Meler.
"We probably should have been more aggressive in terms of man-marking but this is how things went, I accept that," the Slovakia boss added.
"What I don't accept is one minute of stoppage time with their goalkeeper [Jordan Pickford] wasting a whole lot of time.
"I didn't like the refereeing, I absolutely did not like that.
"I didn't like the way the three officials behaved, they were always coming to our bench, they ignored the other bench, I really did not appreciate this, but this is not why we lost.
"I'm proud of my team. If we had been not so attentive all the time, that's something I will review when I watch the match tomorrow but I must congratulate all my players.
"The only thing I didn't appreciate is that the way England were obstructing, were wasting time, was not punished."
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