Calzona: ‘Rice apologised after England-Slovakia, Italy give Spalletti time’ | OneFootball

Slovakia and former Napoli coach Francesco Calzona reveals why England midfielder Declan Rice ‘apologised’ after their EURO 2024 row and urges Italy to ‘give Luciano Spalletti time.’

It has been an extraordinarily busy time for Calzona, who since February has been juggling the role of caretaker manager at club side Napoli and his main job as international coach of the Slovakia national team.

They reached the EURO 2024 Round of 16 and were only 30 seconds away from beating England, until a last-gasp Jude Bellingham overhead kick and the Harry Kane goal in extra time turned it all around.

“Overall I am satisfied with our tournament, even if there is so much regret because we were close to making history for this country,” he told Sky Sport Italia.

“I am proud of the lads, because we pinned England back into their own half for 29 minutes of extra time. We played good football in the group phase too, but while we felt confident going in, we didn’t expect to be moments away from qualifying for the quarter-finals.”

There was tension at the final whistle when Calzona pushed England midfielder Rice, who then came back at him shouting an offensive insult.

“Rice was standing close to the referees, I wanted to ask the reason for the lack of added time considering the time-wasting done by the English, he shouted at me and I replied in a similar tone.

“He is a great player, perhaps he shouldn’t have been there acting like a bodyguard for the referee. He could’ve avoided that, but he did apologise to me straight after that.”

Calzona advice for old boss Spalletti

Before taking the Slovakia job in 2022, Calzona was the assistant manager to Spalletti at Napoli, so does he have any advice for his old boss?

“What I can say is that there is truly very little time to work with the players at international level and you need patience. The results for Italy were negative, but Spalletti is a great coach and they need to give him time. I too had difficulties and was criticised at the start, but the Federation stood by me and we achieved this target.

“You can’t just throw everything out the window at the first sign of difficulty.”

There is still another Italian coach at EURO 2024, as Vincenzo Montella leads Turkey out against Austria this evening.

“I wish Montella all the best, he’s a great coach and a fantastic person. We already played Austria, I knew they could be a surprise at the Euros, but I’m cheering Vincenzo on.”