Vedran Corluka has added several strongly worded insults to England’s wounded pride by accusing Steve McClaren’s side of unbelievable arrogance towards their conquerors at Wembley. The Manchester City defender made no attempt to disguise his pleasure in knocking England out of the tournament in a series of inflammatory comments that will not be well received by Micah Richards, his teammate.

Corluka feels that Croatia have not received the credit they deserve for winning group E, despite beating England home and away. The 21-year-old was particularly unhappy at the arrest of Zorislav Srebric, the secretary general of the Croatian FA, at Gatwick on Tuesday on suspicion of shoplifting after allegedly leaving WH Smith without paying for stationery and newspapers.

“England got just what they deserved because they were unbelievably arrogant,” Corluka said. “I don’t know what Croatia have done to deserve being treated like this by the England players. I cannot believe they didn’t recognise our ability. We came to Wembley as the first team in the group and were not treated correctly. They even arrested our president at the airport and I didn’t expect that in England. We’ve shown again that we’re a better team than England and it’s a real pleasure to kick them out of the European Championship.”

Mladen Petric, who scored the third Croatia goal, echoed Corluka’s complaints by saying that he refused to swap his shirt with any of his opponents as none of them were worthy. “It’s the most valuable goal of my career and the best one I’ve ever scored,” the Borussia Dortmund striker said. “I wouldn’t swap my kit with any English player because I want to save it for myself. No English kit is worth as much as this.”

Expert View

The faults that lie deep within the nation's football will not be cured simply by handing Steve McClaren his P45

Martin Samuel

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