 "English and Spanish players fight at the end of their U-21 Euro quarter-final at the Anton Malatinsky Stadium, in Trnava, Slovakia on Saturday, 21 June. AP")
War broke out between England and Spain on the football pitch during a heated U-21 European Championship match in Slovakia on Saturday in which players ended up getting physical with one another and had to be dragged out of the ground.
The shocking incident took place during the quarter-final meeting between the two nations at the Anton Malatinsky Stadium in Trnava, Slovakia, which England won 3-1 to book a semi-final meeting with Netherlands.
Tempers got the better of players from the two teams shortly after the full-time whistle, with England’s on-field celebrations apparently getting the Spaniards even more worked up. Among the players caught in battle were defender Charlie Cresswell, who had to be held back from Spanish striker and former Leeds teammate Mateo Joseph.
On-field scuffle leads to red-card
Napoli centre-back Rafa Marin was later shown the red card for his part on the scuffle even though he played no part in the game. Manchester City midfielder James McAtee, who scored the first goal of the game, also received a booking.
Watch the incident unfold here:
“It was always going to happen because of the passion from both teams,” Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott, who was also among the goalscorers, told Channel 4 after the match.
“It is one of those where I was trying to calm everyone down. End of the day, we have got everything to lose.
“They don’t, they can get players sent off. We can’t lose players for the semi-final,” the attacking midfielder added.
Coaches from both teams and match officials had to get involved in order to separate the warring players.
“I think there are better ways to build camaraderie! But I think we had something similar in the final (two years ago),” England coach Lee Carsley said after the game.
“Emotions run very high and in those kinds of scenarios you don’t want anyone to get sent off, anyone to throw a punch or get themselves in trouble,” he added.
England are two matches away from winning back-to-back U-21 European titles, having won the previous edition in 2023. And incidentally, they had also defeated Spain, by a 1-0 margin, in the final of the previous edition.