New footage has emerged that appears to show what sparked the mass brawl following England U21's 3-1 European Championship quarter-final win over Spain on Saturday evening. James McAtee, Harvey Elliott, and Elliot Anderson all found the net on a momentous night for the Young Lions, who will face the Netherlands in next week's semi-final.
But just as the final whistle blew, so did tempers in Trnava, Slovakia, as chaos kicked off between players and staff. Spain striker Mateo Joseph seemed especially riled by England defender Charlie Cresswell, before Jay Stansfield stepped in to separate the snarling sides. Meanwhile, Liverpool midfielder Tyler Morton appeared to confront a member of the Spanish entourage, before Lee Carsley stepped in to calm him down. Watch the incident below:
While what had initially caused the moment of madness was unknown, new footage appears to do a lot of the answering. Napoli defender Rafa Marín was shown a straight red card for running onto the pitch to join the scuffles, but it was one of his teammates who first provoked the ugly scenes.
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What Started England U21's Mass Brawl With Spain
The red mist appeared to stem from an overzealous, studs-up tackle
England Under-21 vs Spain Under-21
Just before the full-time whistle blew, one of the Spain forwards pressing Newcastle United right-back Tino Livramento went flying into a challenge. Luckily, his lunging, studs-up attempt to win the ball (if you can call it that) missed the Englishman - otherwise, it could have caused some serious damage. But that didn’t stop his teammates from quickly confronting him. Watch the new footage below:
It was this incident that seemed to cause the scuffles after the final whistle, and England captain McAtee addressed it during his post-match interview. "I never saw the challenge," the Manchester City youth product said, as per Daily Mail. "I saw the boys start going into it, so always going in to help. It’s part of football, and you just have to stick together as a team.
"It’s a big game, we know that. It’s two big teams in the tournament, so them kicking off, we can’t sit back and just let them do it, we have to give them a bit back, so I am happy with the boys."