Darren Bent told Sky Sports during their live coverage of the U21’s European Championships that Liverpool midfielder, Curtis Jones, ‘let himself down’ with his actions on Wednesday.
Even though England’s youngsters had beaten 2-1 Croatia on the day, they suffered an early exit from the tournament, with their opponents scoring a stoppage-time goal to progress.
After the full-time whistle had blown, Jones, who had scored England’s second goal, was seething with the Croatian players and had to be pulled back by staff members, as posted by Football Daily.
Jones was shown a second yellow card for his actions and Bent was critical of the Liverpool man for not keeping his cool.
“Obviously emotions have got the better of him,” said Bent. “We don’t know what was said, but he’s reacted to something. But you never want to see that.
“We understand that England are disappointed that they have gone out of this tournament. Maybe Croatia rubbing in their faces a little bit.
“But that’s what you expect. Whenever teams play England, and they knock England out of major tournaments or they beat England, it’s always chaos with the scenes.
“It’s disappointing from England’s perspective, but Curtis Jones has let himself down a little bit.”
In truth, nobody knows what was said or what sparked such a reaction from Jones.
Hopefully, it was just a case of the Croatian players gloating a bit too much, as they left it late to knock England out.
It was Jones’ first and only start of the tournament and he made quite the difference.
In previous games, England looked lost and devoid of ideas in front of goal, but Liverpool’s thriving academy product changed that once he was handed his starting birth.
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