England started off their Euro 2024 campaign with a victory against Serbia on Sunday at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen. In the thrilling encounter, it was Jude Bellingham, who turned out to be star player for the Three Lions as he scored the decisive goal. He took just 13 minutes to underline the point in the Group C opener. However, a violent altercation took place between the fans of England and Serbia, ahead of this match, which grabbed everyone’s attention.
Some fans of Albania were also involved in the violent clash, which took place in a bar in Gelsenkirchen. As per the reports, the Albanian fans started the altercation against Serbian fans, who are their arch-rivals.
Moments later, England fans also got involved and it turned out to be a big mass brawl. Many videos and images of the incident got viral on social media, showing broken tables, chairs, and glass bottles.
“There was a sudden burst of violence. It came out of nowhere. It was unclear who started what. But to me it seemed liked a group of England fans rushed the bar where Serbs were drinking and it all kicked off with tables, chairs and bottles thrown,” MailOnline quoted an eye witness as saying.
“One man had blood pouring from a head wound – he was English I believe,” the eye witness further stated.
The match between England and Serbia was later declared as “high risk” by German police, due to this clash which saw seven Serbian fans taken into custody.
Talking about the match, Bellingham started the move in midfield with a measured pass to Kyle Walker before sprinting into the penalty area to meet Bukayo Saka’s cross with a superb diving header that arrowed into the net from six yards.
After being mobbed by his team-mates, Bellingham showed his comfort in the spotlight, soaking up the adulation of the England supporters with his arms outstretched before running to the centre circle to whip up the fans at the other end.
Scoring England’s first goal of a major tournament is nothing new to Bellingham, who headed their opener against Iran at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Bellingham is the first European player to feature in three major tournaments before he turns 21 after previously playing at Euro 2020 and the last World Cup.
(With AFP Inputs)
Topics mentioned in this article
