Colombia dirtiest team I’ve faced – Stones
ENGLAND DEFENDER John Stones described Colombia as the “dirtiest team I’ve ever come up against” and said his team’s ability to rise above the provocation is a sign of its growing maturity at the World Cup.
England won a penalty shootout Tuesday after a feisty, physical round-of-16 game finished 1-1 following extra time and with eight yellow cards handed out by the referee – tying for the most issued in any game in the tournament. Colombia’s players received six of them.
“I’ve never seen a game like this before and how they behaved,” said Stones, who has played five years in the Premier League and four years for England. “There were things that we’ve never experienced before.”
Among them, said Stones, was Colombia’s players surrounding and pushing the referee, headbutting Jordan Henderson, and scuffing the penalty spot before Harry Kane’s second-half spot kick. Stones also highlighted a member of Colombia’s technical staff barging into Raheem Sterling as the players came off for half-time.
“It’s obviously their image and how they’ve represented their country,” Stones said yesterday. “We stuck to our game plan and never got involved in the brawl that they wanted. At the end of the day, they are on the plane back home.”
NOT SO INNOCENT
England’s players weren’t completely innocent, however, with Henderson getting booked and appearing to use his head to barge into an opponent. Argentina great Diego Maradona criticised American referee Mark Geiger and said the outcome of the game was a “monumental theft”, comments he apologised for yesterday after FIFA rebuked him.
A grueling game has taken its toll on England, with striker Jamie Vardy missing training yesterday because of a groin injury.
Expectation levels were generally considered to be low among England fans coming into the tournament, but they are rising now, particularly since the team is in the half of the draw with the supposedly weaker teams.
Beat Sweden, and England have a game against Croatia or host nation Russia to reach a first World Cup final since 1966.
Stones isn’t looking too far ahead, though, not with England having won only two of their last 15 meetings with the Swedes.
“I think if you say it’s an easy game in a quarter-final of a World Cup, then you are pretty stupid to say that,” the Manchester City defender said. “They play very structured from the back, sit quite deep from what we’ve seen, and we know what we’re up against.
“Sometimes they can throw you these teams, they can go kind of under the radar, but there is no question they are a good team.”