Jude Bellingham said England showed a lot of character as they came back to beat Slovakia 2-1 in their last 16 match in Euro 2024.
Ivan Schranz put wily, well-drilled Slovakia on course for their biggest win as an independent nation, only for Bellingham to score an overhead kick in the last minute of normal time, as Harry Kane scored the winner with a header in extra time.
“You’re 30 seconds away from going home, feeling like you’ve let your nation down, and one kick of the ball and everything’s great,” Bellingham said.
“It’s a feeling I don’t want to be in, but when it comes, it’s a great feeling.
“Playing for England is a great thing, but it's a lot of pressure as well. Being on the pitch and scoring goals for me is a release, it's a very happy moment
“Besides their goal, we were pretty good I thought. We got into good areas. We could be more clinical, but the main thing we showed was a lot of character.
“In knockout football, when you produce a moment like that, people can look around and think 'Yes, that is the spirit we have in the team'. You don't have those moments without the adversity.”
England captain Kane said: “It looked tough for a second there, but you keep going, we worked on so many details throughout the week and we put in a long throw a couple of days ago, we said we might need it, be prepared for anything.
“And obviously Jude, that's what Jude does, what an unbelievable goal, he's kept our tournament alive.
“One of the best in our country's history, what a player he is. He's worked so hard for the team, there's been a lot to talk about in the last couple of days but it shows what you can do in the big moments, he steps up, and that's what we need.”
Slovakia manager Francesco Calzona: “We played on par basically with England, we almost qualified. We were very nearly there, unfortunately things went the way they did.
“I'm very proud to see this team do so well, the other team sending on defenders to preserve their result.”
Slovakia's Ivan Schranz, who opened the scoring: “It's my third goal of the tournament, but so what? It could have been beautiful, great, but we lost out at the last moment.
“But we certainly have nothing to be angry about. We'll deal with it, but maybe we'll regret it for the rest of our lives.
“We may not get another chance like this to rewrite history ...”
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024
