UEFA Euro 2024 – Physical Fight Breaks Out Between Declan Rice & Slovakia Boss After England’s Nervous Win

Fans were in for an electric encounter between England and Slovakia in the Euro 2024 Round of 16. The 2020 runner-ups, England, escaped from the jaws of defeat, as they bagged two late goals to turn things around against Slovenia. While Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane registered their names on the scoresheet, midfielder Declan Rice played a key role in keeping his team alive in the contest.

However, Rice’s celebration might have been cut short following the sound of the final whistle with the player finding himself in a physical altercation with Slovakia’s head coach, Francesco Calzona. The English midfielder was talking with the match officials when Calzona walked up to them, trying to talk with the main referee, Halil Umut.

Declan Rice didn’t like the Slovakia boss barging into his conversation as he tried to push the opposition boss away. Calzona, in return, tried to push back, as England players rushed to their teammates to pull him away from the opposition manager. According to reports, Rice called Calzona a ‘bald c**t’. Rice before he was pulled away by Ivan Toney while the Slovakian coaching staff confronted him and pushed him in the chest.

Fellow Arsenal teammate Aaron Ramsdale then tried to calm Rice down as the midfielder continued to exchange words with the Slovakian coaching staff. While Rice had nothing to say about the argument following the game, Francesco Calzona did shy away from speaking about his bust-up with the English midfielder.

Slovakia manager speaks on his altercation with Declan Rice

The manager downplayed his altercation with the English international stating, “Rice was supposed to go to the referees and say goodbye and then leave. I had to speak to the referees and he was carrying on, continuing to speak. Then he apologised and it all ended there.”

While Calzona was okay with Rice, he did slam England for wasting time after finding their second goal in the contest. The Slovakian head coach claimed, “What I don’t accept is one minute of stoppage time with their goalkeeper [Jordan Pickford] wasting a whole lot of time. I didn’t like the refereeing, I absolutely did not like that. I didn’t like the way the three officials behaved, they were always coming to our bench, and they ignored the other bench. The only thing I didn’t appreciate is that the way England was obstructing, wasting time, was not punished.”

England will now turn their attention to their upcoming quarter-final clash against Switzerland. The Swiss have been impressive so far in the competition and could be a tough challenge for the Three Lions considering how the team has performed in the tournament.