Spain hit out at England’s behaviour during Euro U21 final

Spain FA president Luis Rubiales and under-21 worldwide Sergio Gomez criticised the behaviour of England during the European U21 Championship final on Saturday.

England beat Spain 1-0 to win the trophy for the primary time in 39 years, with Cole Palmer’s free-kick, which deflected in off Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones, proving the distinction in an ill-tempered match.

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Palmer celebrated England’s objective in entrance of the Spain bench, sparking a melee between each squads that subsequently noticed Spain health coach Carlos Rivera and England assistant coach Ashley Cole obtain pink playing cards.

Subsequent altercations between the groups flared up as the 2 sides headed to their respective altering rooms at half time, and once more at the full-time whistle after England goalkeeper James Trafford saved Abel Ruiz’ last-gasp penalty — England’s Morgan Gibbs-White and Spain’s Antonio Blanco have been each proven pink playing cards in second half stoppage time.

Gomez, who joined Manchester City from Anderlecht final summer time, mentioned in an interview with Cadena SER: “It surprised me. He [Palmer] didn’t want to apologise or anything like some of his other team-mates. I don’t know, I would have celebrated it in a different way and my team-mates would have done it in a different way as well.

“They [England] have the perspective they wish to have. This shouldn’t be the primary time one thing like this has occurred with this group. We have tried to characterize our nation in the absolute best means and have the utmost respect for all our rivals. They wished to rejoice it like this and likewise after the missed penalty.”

Palmer admitted that he may have gone too far with his celebrations when speaking to Channel 4 after the final whistle.

“Obviously, it means rather a lot. Been working rather a lot over the previous few years for this second and it is come so I’m buzzing,” Palmer said.

“I used to be a bit annoyed with the way in which they have been happening and screaming [earlier in the match]. The celebration was perhaps a bit excessive however [I’m] simply blissful.”

Spanish FA president Rubiales was also unimpressed with England’s behaviour during the match which saw seven players receive yellow cards from referee Espen Eskas.

“They are unimportant issues, I’ve already spoken to whoever I needed to communicate to,” Rubiales said. “These gamers are already males and a few gestures [from England] may have been averted.

“Here, we not only train footballers but also people. It is almost inevitable to jump into some provocation, but the people of the RFEF [Spanish FA] behaved very well. “We know the way to win as we demonstrated with the Nations League and after we lose we shake fingers with our opposition.”