John Stones is certainly looking to focus on the positives England can take from Tuesday's round-of-16 penalty shoot-out victory against Colombia, yet, he cannot completely overlook a team that he regards as the "dirtiest team" he has ever played against.
Crediting England with sticking to their plan and playing a brand of football that they were comfortable with, one of England's regular starters had few kind words for a Colombian side that turned the last-16 tie into a "strange" game.
Highlighting the Colombian team's proclivity for the dark arts, Stones listed off a series of incidents that troubled him:
When we won a penalty they were surrounding the referee, even pushing the referee, the headbutt that I'm sure you've all seen, scuffing the penalty spot, and a lot of off the ball stuff that I'm sure you've not heard about.
Leaving a little bit of the unknown in there, it was generally accepted in the wake of England's win that Colombia's antics scarcely merited a place in the next round.
Appearing visibly disturbed by some of what went on, we may be waiting for the first run of autobiographies from some of this young team to get a clearer idea of what was going on beyond the immediate grasp of the viewers.
For England, thoughts now turn toward Sweden and a potential place in a World Cup semi-final againt Croatia or Russia.
You can watch Stones' interview below.
"The dirtiest team I've ever played" - England's John Stones on Colombia's tactics and intimidation #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/62uHLhWNvM
— ITV News (@itvnews) July 5, 2018
