Francesco Calzona told reporters he was more proud than disappointed after his Slovakia side faced a heartbreaking loss to England, and were eliminated from EURO2024.
Ivan Schranz’s goal put the underdogs ahead after 25 minutes, and they came within seconds of qualification. It wasn’t until stoppage time that Jude Bellingham equalised with a sensational stoppage-time overhead kick and Harry Kane’s goal in extra time sealed a comeback.
Embed from Getty Images“I feel proud, we played a great game against a world-class team and one of the favourites. We allowed England very little, we almost advanced. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it. In extra time, we spent half the time in our opponents’ half. I am very proud of my team.
“We played on a par basically with England, we conceded very little.
“It’s a matter of pride to train these players. They made the difference on the field and I’m very grateful to have them.”
Reflecting on the two late goals they conceded, Calzona said: “We conceded a goal when there were only a few seconds left, through a player who plays [for Real Madrid]. It’s a matter of a few centimetres and you’re punished. Maybe we could have defended it better, but that’s what happens.”
On Kane’s goal, he added: “In that very moment we probably should have been more aggressive in terms of man marking but this is how things went. I accept that.”
Asked what he told his dressing room after their tournament exit, Calzona said simply:
“I told the players that they did a great job. They were fantastic. What else can I say? We played on a par with all our opponents this tournament. We played attacking football, we had a lot of chances to score.
“We played against a team that many consider one of the favourites for the tournament so what can I say – I am very proud of them. There’s really nothing else I can tell them.
“They’re clearly all very disappointed because we were so close to making it, but this is football.”
The Italian manager did express his frustration with some of the officiating.
“What I don’t accept is one minute stoppage time with their keeper wasting a whole lot of time – I didn’t like the refereeing. I absolutely did not like that. I don’t like the way the three umpires behaved – they were always coming to our bench, they ignored the other bench. I really did not appreciate this, but that’s not the reason why we lost.”
Follow reaction to the match, and our coverage of Spain v Georgia, here on our live blog.
