England squad enjoy rest day after ’emotional rollercoaster’ of Slovakia win

Jude Bellingham and his England team-mates enjoyed a much-needed rest day at Euro 2024 following the “emotional rollercoaster” victory over Slovakia on Sunday.

The Real Madrid midfielder spoke of the mixture of feelings after his last-gasp overhead kick took the last-16 meeting into extra-time before Harry Kane headed home to seal a quarter-final against Switzerland.

With the tie taking place in Dusseldorf on Saturday, manager Gareth Southgate gave his players and staff the day off on Tuesday after he admitted a number of his team were tired following the Slovakia game.

A number of friends and family visited the team’s Spa & Golf Resort Weimarer Land base while some players were seen cycling around the local town of Blankenhain, where full-back Kieran Trippier managed a Football Association staff team, featuring coach Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, to victory against a media side.

Bellingham, Kyle Walker, Ezri Konsa, Kobbie Mainoo and Cole Palmer were among the spectators at Lindenstadion, where the media XI recovered from losing the match to win a penalty shoot-out.

The quality did not quite reach the level of Bellingham’s spectacular strike against Slovakia, which signalled the start of the turnaround in Gelsenkirchen.

“It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, really,” Bellingham told the Diary Room on England’s social media channels.

“Not probably the most enjoyable way to win a game, obviously you always want to feel like you’re in control and you’re comfortable.

“But you’ve got to find ways to win, even if it means overhead kicks in the 90-plus-five, you’ve got to try and find a way.

“But the difference in emotion is so huge. You know, it’s one minute being kind of dead and buried, I saw the Slovakia bench and they were all kind of ready to run on, You feel a bit disheartened and a bit gutted.

“We didn’t stop believing that we could create one more chance and luckily, we got it. There was a throw-in just before where they’d not cleared it well, or they kind of shanked the clearance a little bit.”

Bellingham celebrated the goal by raising his arms and shouting “Who else?” and later explained it was aimed at critics who had been talking “rubbish” about the Real Madrid star and his England team-mates.

It was an outpouring of emotion from the 21-year-old, who is also being investigated by UEFA over a separate gesture he made after the goal.

He appeared to gesture toward the Slovakian bench, with UEFA releasing a statement on Monday which read: “A UEFA ethics and disciplinary inspector will conduct a disciplinary investigation regarding a potential violation of the basic rules of decent conduct by the English Football Association player, Jude Bellingham, having allegedly occurred in the scope of this match.”

The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder has denied it was aimed at the opposition and instead a private joke with his friends who were in attendance.

Speaking about the overhead kick itself, Bellingham was critical of his own technique.

“It was really instinct more than anything, it kind of fell in the perfect spot, it was a little bit behind me,” he added.

“When I was in the air thought ‘my god, I’m like, six feet off the ground, and it’s like, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, but I watched it back and I’ve still got one arm on the floor, so it wasn’t the most acrobatic!

“But I think it was a nice contact and when I turned around on the floor and just saw it kind of rolling in, I thought ‘oh my God’; it was definitely one of the most important and memorable moments of my career so far.”