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17th Jun 2016

Chaos in France as flare thrown by Croatia fans explodes in steward’s hand

Utter madness

Simon Lloyd

Not what we wanted to witness at all.

We hoped we’d seen an end to the trouble with supporters at Euro 2016. But in the closing minutes of Croatia’s game with the Czech Republic in Saint Etienne, there were more ugly scenes.

Croatian supporters let off flares behind Petr Cech’s goal, throwing them on to the pitch. The game was temporarily stopped as stewards and ground staff attempted to remove them from the field of play.

With one of the officials attempting to pick it up, one of the flares exploded. Thankfully, the steward appeared to escape unharmed but this could have been seriously nasty.

Following the incident, Croatian players were seen pleading with supporters, some of whom were fighting amongst themselves by this stage, for calm.

Although there will almost certainly be ramifications for the Croatian FA Once again, questions will be asked as to how, given the increased security, so many flares were allowed to be brought into another Euro 2016 match.