Casting Stones: England defender labels Colombia 'dirtiest team he's faced'

REPINO, Russia (AP):

England defender John Stones described Colombia as the "dirtiest team I've ever come up against" and said his team's ability to rise above the provocation is a sign of its growing maturity at the FIFA World Cup.

England won a penalty shoot-out Tuesday after a feisty, physical round-of-16 game finished 1-1 following extra time and with eight yellow cards handed out by the referee tying for the most issued in any game in the tournament. Colombia's players received six of them.

"I've never seen a game like this before and how they behaved," said Stones, who has played five years in the English Premier League and four years for England. "There were things that we've never experienced before."

VARYING OFFENSES

Among them, said Stones, was Colombia's players surrounding and pushing the referee, head-butting Jordan Henderson, and scuffing the penalty spot before Harry Kane's second-half spot kick. Stones also highlighted a member of Colombia's technical staff barging into Raheem Sterling as the players came off for half-time.

"It's obviously their image and how they've represented their country," Stones said yesterday. "We stuck to our game plan and never got involved in the brawl that they wanted. At the end of the day, they are on the plane back home."

England's players were not completely innocent, however, with Henderson getting booked and appearing to use his head to barge into an opponent. Argentina great Diego Maradona criticised American referee Mark Geiger and said the outcome of the game was a "monumental theft", comments he apologised for Thursday after FIFA rebuked him.