Slovakia’s Italian coach Francesco Calzona has said England players were scared of his team who he feels deserved to go through to the quarter-finals.
Slovakia was just seconds away from a place in the quarter-finals after Ivan Schranz’s opener in the first half.
But Jude Bellingham equalised with a stunning overhead kick in the 95th minute, before Harry Kane nodded in early in extra time.
“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.
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“I was angry because one extra minute of stoppages with the amount of time-wasting especially from their goalkeeper was not enough.
“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.
“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.
“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,” Calzona concluded.
