Stones calls Colombia ‘the dirtiest side I have ever played against’
England defender John Stones has criticised Colombia’s dirty tactics in their last 16 tie and admitted that he took great delight in knocking the South Americans out of the World Cup.
England line up for a World Cup quarter-final against Sweden on Saturday after beating a physical Colombia in a penalty shoot-out at Moscow’s Spartak Stadium on Tuesday night.
Stones said: “The best thing for us was to beat them at football, that will hurt them most. They’re back on the plane going home and we’re in the next round”
Wilmar Barrios escaped with just a yellow card after headbutting Jordan Henderson while Colombia surrounded referee Mark Geiger after he awarded a penalty following Carlos Sanchez’s foul on Harry Kane and it took almost four minutes before the England captain could convert the spot-kick.
Stones said: “The game was so strange. It was the dirtiest team I’ve ever come up against, in the respect of when we won a penalty, surrounding the referee, pushing the referee, the headbutt you’ve all seen, scuffing the penalty spot and a lot of off the ball spot I’m sure you’ve not heard about.
“All the sort of things you don’t really hear in a football match. On our behalf, it showed massive character to keep a cool head and not get dragged into their game.
“We stuck to our plan and kept playing our way of football and that’s a great quality to have. It was a difficult situation but one we’ve overcome and can be proud of.”
England won 4-3 on penalties in Moscow after a 1-1 draw with Yerry Mina cancelling out Kane’s penalty with an injury-time equaliser.
But Stones refused to go into detail at what really happened off the ball and away from the cameras against Colombia.
“I’d rather not, it would get me in a bit of trouble. I’ve never seen a game like that before and how they behaved,” he said. “I thought there could have been several red cards – mainly off the ball stuff.
“If the referee sees the headbutt it’s a totally different game.
“[But] we stuck to our gameplan and to beat them at football, that will hurt more than us getting into a scrap.”
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says that the way the game was played took the shine off of England’s win and singled out Harry Maguire for diving in the opposition box and the way he called for the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
“The negative thing for me was the fact … I think there is exaggeration on theatre by the players,” he said while working as a pundit on Russia Today.
“I was surprised to see central defenders like Harry Maguire, normally he is a very honest guy, diving in the attacking box asking the referee for VAR.
“Every team has lots of diving, lots of pretending, lots of putting pressure on the referee. The game loses quality … that was the negative point.”