Russians rooting for England after Croat’s ‘Glory to Ukraine’ tweet
By Robert Mendick and Alec Luhn in
Moscow and Ben Rumsby in Samara
RUSSIAN fans are rooting for England after a Croatia footballer shouted “Glory to Ukraine” after his country’s win over the hosts.
Domagoj Vida, a defender, was filmed alongside Ognjen Vukojevic, a former team-mate, yelling the antirussian, pro-ukraine nationalist slogan in a short clip posted on Twitter.
Vida, 29, later sought to play down the implications of the video, saying: “This victory is for Croatia. No politics. It’s a joke. I’ve got friends there [in Ukraine] since Dynamo Kiev [his former team of five years]. I didn’t mean anything else.” When asked if he was worried Russian fans might not get the “joke”, he replied: “Why wouldn’t they? I like Russian people. It was just a joke.”
The video so angered Russians their fans are now vowing to support England in the semi-final against Croatia.
Yura Reizer, a Spartak Moscow fan, said a “significant number” of Russians would now be cheering for England.
Yevgeny Potapoff, a blogger with 113,000 followers on Twitter, wrote on his social media account: “They’re both f------. I’m rooting for England.”