England followers have accused Italian authorities of inflicting “carnage” exterior the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Riot police used batons on a crowd of supporters arriving for England’s Euro 2024 qualifier in opposition to Italy in Naples on Thursday evening. Fans reported being herded right into a “dangerous bottleneck” with the intention to move by means of a number of safety checks which induced “chaos”.
“Absolutely horrible process getting into the stadium,” England supporter James Holden informed The Independent from exterior the stadium. “It’s crazy, only 2,400 have come and entry checks are carnage.”
He later added: “Crushes, groups split up, children crying. It really didn’t feel safe at all. It was kicking off because one little kid was getting crushed and crying and the fans tried to let him through the front, but the police blocked it off.”
BBC journalist David Cheeseman reported that one fan was injured after falling within the chaos. Other followers who escaped the scenario weren’t let into the stadium till half-time.
The FA has been contacted for remark.
England received the sport 2-1 thanks partially to a record-breaking objective by captain Harry Kane, who grew to become his nation’s all-time prime scorer with the 54th senior objective of his worldwide profession.
Kane’s penalty made it 2-0 at half-time following Declan Rice’s opener, however Italy got here again within the second half, scoring after which piling on late stress after Luke Shaw was despatched off after choosing up two fast yellow playing cards.
But England held on to get off to the right begin of their qualifying group. They subsequent play Ukraine at Wembley on Sunday.