Wayne Rooney came under attack from Samir Hamidovic, the Slovenia goalkeeper, yesterday for the manner in which he won a penalty in England’s 2-1 win at Wembley on Saturday.
Rooney claimed last week that he dived only on his summer holidays, but Hamidovic and several of his team-mates questioned the Manchester United striker’s sportsmanship in appealing for a penalty after a tussle with Bostjan Cesar.
Television replays indicated that Rooney did not dive, but showed he was guilty of pulling Cesar’s shirt and kicking him on the ankle in challenging for the ball. To add to the visiting team’s misery, Cesar limped off shortly afterwards and will miss Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Poland.
“I’m not happy,” Hamidovic said. “Rooney is a good player, but I did not expect this from a player with his quality. It was wrong for him to appeal for the penalty. It was not fair play, but this is football. It was a foul for us. In this situation the referee did not do well. He gave it because England is a bigger national team than Slovenia.
“Cesar will not play on Wednesday now and will be out for ten to 15 days. He is very important for us, but it makes us angry about the penalty, not the injury.”
Advertisement
Hamidovic’s complaints were echoed by Nejc Pecnik, the midfield player. “It didn’t look like a penalty to me, but we must accept it,” he said. “Rooney went down far too easily and because he is a big name it made it easier for the referee to make a decision.
“Lots of people dive in football, that’s sport, and if the referee whistles, it’s a penalty. Maybe he fell, but I don’t know. When Rooney went down he kicked Cesar and he’s twisted his ankle. We were very unlucky — our player was injured and somehow England got a penalty.”