Slovakia boss takes bitter swipe at "scared" England and blasts Jordan Pickford

Angry Slovakia manager Francesco Calzona hit out at what he saw as time-wasting antics from a "scared" England side during their last-16 clash, taking aim at Jordan Pickford in particular.

The Three Lions staged a remarkable comeback to beat Slovakia in extra-time in Gelsenkirchen, where Ivan Schranz had put Calzona's side ahead after 25 minutes with his third goal of the tournament.

Just when all hope looked lost for England, Jude Bellingham levelled the scores with a stunning overhead kick in the fifth minute of injury time, before Harry Kane won it in the first minute of extra-time.

There were angry scenes at the full-time whistle as Calzona clashed with Declan Rice, and the Italian - who coached Napoli in the final few months of last season - was still fuming with England when he spoke to reporters at full-time.

"In extra-time it was one-way traffic, we pinned them back and they relied on time-wasting and obstructionism," he said.

"I was angry because one extra minute of stoppages with the amount of time-wasting especially from their goalkeeper (Pickford) 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."

Calzona was frustrated with his side's defeat

Calzona admitted his frustrations at failing to take chances in the game that would have put them 2-0 up, and also for allowing Bellingham the space he found in the penalty area before pulling off his spectacular finish, but he reiterated that he felt his side would have been worthy of victory had they achieved it.

"We knew that we could not leave space between the lines, we all know what Bellingham can do and had to keep it tight," he said. "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."

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