John Stones has labelled Colombia the ‘dirtiest team’ he’s ever come up against after several contentious decisions in England’s last-16 win. The three lions got themselves ahead after Harry Kane was brought down in the box, before Colombia players scuffed the penalty spot. That didn’t stop Kane though, but the manhandling and supposed dives continued. They were always up in the referee’s face and it led to six Colombia players walking off the pitch on yellow cards.
‘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, a lot of off the ball stuff 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. The best thing for us was to beat them at football, that is the biggest thing which will hurt them. They’re on the plane going home and we’re in the next round. We stuck to our game plan and to beat them at football, that will hurt more than us getting into a scrap.’