In the Round of 16 of the European Championship, Slovakia opened the scoring, Bellingham equalized in stoppage time, Kane scored the winning goal in extra time, and Slovakia was eventually eliminated by England 2-1, stopping at the Round of 16. After the game, Slovakia coach Calzona accepted an interview with the media.
Calzona said: “I want to commend my players because they did exactly what I asked of them. We were a bit loose in the second half, but that’s to be expected against a team of this caliber. Then in extra time we just defended one end, we kept them at bay, I’m proud of being able to defend against a team like that, and our goalkeeper also played for time, I want to say that the referee’s one minute of stoppage time was really too little. I’m definitely not happy with the referee, but we didn’t lose because of that. We lost because we had a few lapses in concentration, but I’m obviously very proud of my team because we played our own style of football, we played a very good game, and I think the Slovakian people are proud of it too.”
“We knew we couldn’t leave any gaps between the lines because everyone knows that Bellingham is a player with immense talent. We kept it compact, blocked the spaces. We had some chances in the first half to kill the game, or at least take a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately, if those chances had been taken, the game might have gone completely differently.”
“To see a strong team like England just wanting to defend in extra time shows how well we played, I’m proud of that. I’m really very proud of my players, we should have been the ones going through.”
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