Dirtiest team I’ve ever played

STONES BLAST FOR COLOMBIA’S BEATEN BRAWLERS

JOHN STONES has launched a scathing attack on Colombia, branding them as the “dirtiest team” he has ever faced.

Diego Maradona declared England’s win was a “monumental theft” and claimed Gareth Southgate’s players “threw themselves to the ground”.

Stones made a nonsense

of Maradona’s allegations, however, and said: “I don’t think there is anyone in our team who would do that (cheat and dive).

“They were probably the dirtiest team I’ve ever come up against – pushing the referee, the head-butt that you’ve all seen, scuffing the penalty spot and a lot of off-the-ball things you haven’t heard about. There could have been several red cards.” And Stones said the Colombians took their dirty tricks into the penalty shoot-out.

He added: “They were saying a lot of things to us while the lads were walking up to take the penalties.

“We showed massive character to keep a cool head and not get into the brawl they wanted. The best thing was to beat them at football. That’s the biggest thing that’ll hurt them.”