Sterling calls out Bulgaria coach after racist chanting in UEFA

England forward Raheem Sterling has hit out at Bulgaria coach Krasimir Balakov for remarks made before Monday night's 6-0 win in Sofia.

The build up to the game centered on the possibility of racist abuse being hurled from the stands by Bulgarian supporters, with coaches from both sides having their say on the issue.

The game was called to a halt in the first half after Raheem Sterling, Tyrone Mings and Marcus Rashford were subjected to racist abuse from the stands. The game was then stopped for a second time and the threat of abandonment was very real - as is UEFA protocol.

The scenes in Monday night's game only served to highlight further the remarkable comments made by Balakov before the game, where the coach said that he believed there was no problem with racism in his country.

'What I can say is that I don't think we have a problem,' he said.

'In the Bulgarian championship, we have a lot of players of different ethnicities and skin colour. I don't think that we have this big problem like, for example, England do.'

Asked to clarify his remark on England, Balakov said: 'What I meant was that in the Bulgarian championship we've not had such problems.

'While there have been incidents in various levels of English football involving racism, which I consider something normal because it's a big country with a very diverse population.

'But we don't have this problem in Bulgaria, I can assure you of that.'

Sterling, posting to Twitter, responded to those comments by saying: 'Mmmmh ... Not sure about this one chief.'

The Manchester City star went on to share his thoughts on a night that was marred by the behaviour of those in the stands.

'Feeling sorry for Bulgaria to be represented by such idiots in their stadium,' he said. 'Anyway.. 6-0 and we go back home, at least we did our job. Safe travel to our fans, u guys did well'.