TPO - Slovakia's head coach, Francesco Calzona, was quite harsh when commenting on the 1-2 loss to England with the decisive goal in extra time. He said that when witnessing the game, it was clear that the England team was scared.
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Slovakia has caused a lot of trouble for England. |
“The boys worked hard and did exactly what I asked,” coach Francesco Calzona told Sky Sport Italia . “We allowed them a little more possession in the second half, but that is to be expected against a team of this quality.
In extra time, we created a one-sided game. We forced them to retreat to defend their goal and they just defended.”
In addition, coach Francesco Calzona also accused England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford of deliberately wasting time, delaying Slovakia's attacks. And according to this coach, with a star-studded team like England, it proves that the Three Lions are afraid of them.
“I was angry because the referee only gave one minute of injury time (in extra time), especially after the fouls by their goalkeeper. I didn't like the way the match officials worked at all. But that's definitely not the reason why we lost," said Mr. Calzona.
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Coach Calzona believes England were afraid of Slovakia |
"We lost because of a few moments of lapses in concentration, but obviously I'm very proud of my team because we played positive football. We had a great performance and I think the Slovakian fans will be proud of that.
We are also proud that we forced a strong team like England to fight back in extra time. This means they were afraid of us. We deserved to go through,” said Calzona.
Perhaps the statistics also partly support coach Calzona. In extra time, Slovakia had almost twice as much possession as their opponents (63% compared to 37%). They had twice as many shots (7 compared to 3). But in reality, like what England showed in the official 90 minutes, Slovakia did not create clear chances.
What they did have was a 105th-minute opportunity. Peter Pekarik met a beautiful cross into the box and fired home. Unfortunately, his quick, one-touch shot went just over the bar. And that wasn't enough to break Slovakia's record. They've never made it to the quarter-finals of a major tournament.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/hlv-slovakia-che-doi-tuyen-anh-am-chi-doi-phuong-da-hen-post1650910.tpo
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