We wanted Bulgaria to suffer, admits Jordan Henderson
England’s clash against Bulgaria, a convincing 6-0 victory, will always be remembered for the racist chants and not the football on display, which has enraged Jordan Henderson. The English star admitted that his side wanted the hosts to suffer and allowed their football to do the talking.
While England may have confirmed their spot in the Euro 2020 convincingly against a Bulgaria team that had no answers to their questions, the game will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Their Euro 2020 qualifier in Sofia had to be stopped twice by the match officials as home fans, who were warned about racist behaviour, made their presence known with monkey chants and Nazi salutes. But that did not stop England from scoring three goals before the second stoppage in the 43 minutes doubling their lead before the game was officially over.
However, while the home fans were eventually ejected from the stadium, their behaviour has enraged a few English players with Jordan Henderson the latest to talk about everything. The 29-year-old went on to admit that what happened should have never taken place and that UEFA needs to do something about it in the future. He also added that instead of walking off the field Gareth Southgate and co wanted to let their football do the talking and make the Bulgarians suffer on the field.
"It was disgusting. It shouldn't be happening and something needs to be done about it but I thought the lads were outstanding and if I was angry I'm sure they were angry as well. We let the football do the talking. The message in the dressing room at half-time was we wanted to go out in the second half and make them suffer and make their team suffer on the pitch and I think we did that," Henderson said reports the BBC.
England were up by two goals from Marcus Rashford and Ross Barkley after which an announcement was made warning home fans that any further issues and the game would be abandoned. This is in line with UEFA’s three-step anti-racism protocols and a second warning rung around the stadium minutes before half-time. However, England opted to play on and while questions have been asked about why they made that decision, Henderson admitted that it was the right one.
"I obviously wasn't happy with the situation that we were in, it wasn't nice to be involved in and it shouldn't be happening in 2019, it is very disappointing. But, at the same time, I felt as a team we dealt with it so well, we touched on it before we came here just in case it did happen and unfortunately it did. We spoke together and the decision was that we carried on because if you leave the pitch and stop the game they win, really,” concluded the midfielder.
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