Declan Rice found himself at the centre of a heated altercation with Slovakian manager Francesco Calzona as England survived an early scare to advance to the quarter-finals of the Euros.
Calzona went on the field following the defeat seemingly to remonstrate with the match officials before finding Rice in his path.
Calzona shoved Rice in the chest before raising his arms in protest as another member of Slovakian staff joined the confrontation, however, the England star was pulled away by teammate Ivan Toney.
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“Rice was supposed to go to the referees and say goodbye and leave. I wanted to speak to the referees,” Calzona said.
Slovakia’s players can leave Germany with their heads held high.
“I told the players they did a great job, they were fantastic,” he said.
“We played on a par with all our opponents, played attacking football.
“Tonight we played against the team that many consider favorites to win the tournament. We were very close to making it, to qualifying for the quarterfinals and it disappeared with a few seconds to go.”
Slovakia didn’t take its heartbreaking exit from the European Championship so well on Monday (AEST), as captain Milan Škriniar was left speechless.
“We needed 30 seconds and could celebrate, but that’s soccer, I’m speechless,” Škriniar said after his team conceded a stoppage-time equaliser to England and then lost 2-1 after extra time.
The pain was etched over Škriniar’s face and it was easy to understand why.
Slovakia was so close to reaching the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time since becoming an independent state in 1993 and from taking down another huge soccer nation at Euro 2024 in the process, having already beaten Belgium in the group stage.
Ivan Schranz’s 25th-minute strike put the 45th-ranked Slovakians ahead against England and it needed arguably the goal of the tournament – an overhead kick by Jude Bellingham in the fifth minute of additional time – to breach a defense that hadn’t until that point allowed a shot on target.
“They scored a goal from a player who is valued at 100 million euros,” Slovakian manager Francesco Calzona said.
“This was a team worth 1.5 billion (euros). You concede just half a metre and you will get punished.
“So I don’t want to blame anyone.”
That, though, didn’t stop Slovakia’s Italian coach from having a pop at England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford for time-wasting and the referee for “always coming to our bench and never going to (England’s) bench”.
England will face Switzerland on Sunday (AEST).