Slovakia boss Francesco Calzona has come out to say why the argument between him and Declan Rice occurred after England’s extra time victory on Sunday.
Calzona ended up pushing Rice as he went to question the officials after full-time which caused the Arsenal midfielder to react angrily and eventually had to be pulled away.
The 55-year-old head coach played down the incident after the game and said Rice had apologised.
However, even after Rice apologised, Calzona still had something to say about the situation.
“Rice was standing close to the referees, I wanted to ask the reason for the lack of added time considering the time-wasting done by the English, he shouted at me and I replied in a similar tone."
“He is a great player, perhaps he shouldn’t have been there acting like a bodyguard for the referee. He could’ve avoided that, but he did apologise to me straight after that.”
After the victory Rice did explain his anger and why the fight started after what was a very tense game that went down to the last minute.
“There is that inner fight and spirit in us that a few Slovakian players before the game said that we didn't have. We've got that togetherness; we proved that tonight."
“We'd do anything to protect this manager, protect each other. We'll keep going and keep fighting and what we've got as a group tonight showed out there. It's an honour to be a part of it and we're going to give it everything.”