After the European Championship game between England and Slovakia, there was an incident. Jude Bellingham, on the other hand, was excited to tease the media a bit as England progressed to the top eight.
30.6. 23:50•Updated 0:28
The dramatic European Championship match between England and Slovakia ended in a mass brawl. Slovak coach Francesco Calzona was walking towards the referees after the final whistle, nudging England’s star player at the same time Declan Rice.
The situation resulted in a momentary mass brawl.
England won the match dramatically and advanced to the top eight. Jude Bellingham tied the match in overtime. Harry Kane scored the winning goal at the beginning of the follow-up match. England won 2–1.
After the match, Calzona tried to calm down the situation at the press conference.
– I had to talk to the referee, but he continued, Calzona told the Swede According to Fotbollskanalen about the situation.
The rattling subsided quickly.
– Then Rice apologized. That’s how it ended, Calzona put it succinctly.
England’s great hero was Jude Bellingham, who scored a wonderful scissor kick goal at the last minute. His strike in the 95th minute was the latest in England’s history. The previous record was held Daniel Sturridge. He scored in the 91st minute of the 2016 European Championship when he scored in a 2–1 win against Wales.
– Jude Bellingham scored an incredible goal and kept our Tournament alive. His goal was one of the most spectacular in England history. Jude is a great player. He works so hard for his team. In big moments, he steps forward. That’s what we need, Harry Kane praised his 21-year-old teammate.
England’s performances have naturally not garnered much praise at home. Even now, the performance was considered to be such that England went on to the next step.
Bellingham teased the English media a bit after the match in a sweaty interview.
– We have tried to keep negative energy away from our dressing room. I’m sure you had some other questions ready in your paper, Bellingham threw to the British reporter.
– Today we showed the character that we have lacked earlier in this tournament.
After the match, the manager was also aware of the criticism towards the champion favorite Gareth Southgate.
– Of course, everyone understandably questions our performance, but we have some quality factors that kept us in the game. In the first half, we were too slow with the ball. Slovakia was compact in midfield. We made changes for the second half. I think the young team showed great patience. We didn’t rush, Southgate described at the press conference.
The statistical company Gracenote knew how to tell that Slovakia was about to make a historic surprise. Slovakia is 45th in the world ranking and England is 5th. Never before in the history of the European Championship had such a surprise win in the playoffs been seen in terms of rankings. The record can be found at the European Championship in 2004, when Greece beat France in the quarter-finals. At the time, Greece was 35th and France 3rd, so there was a difference of 33 positions. Now the difference would have been 40.
There is also a difference in the players. According to Transfermarkt, the prestigious soccer statistics website, England’s European Championship team is worth 1.52 billion euros. It is the highest reading of this year’s EC tournament. Slovakia’s value is the third lowest, i.e. 156.4 million euros.
England will face Switzerland next Saturday in the quarter-finals. Southgate raved about how Switzerland have already played longer than it’s incredible. Switzerland knocked out reigning European champions Italy in their quarter-final.
– That game will be a big tactical challenge for us. We are in the construction phase. We have had a lot of problems that we have had to solve in this tournament. We put Band-Aids on things. We give our young players opportunities. We’ll somehow find a way. We are still involved. At least our commitment and desire cannot be questioned, Southgate wrote poetry.