Former England and Manchester United defender Gary Neville branded referee Wilton Sampaio as an “absolute joke” for his head scratching performance in the Three Lions’ defeat to France.
Gareth Southgate ’s men fell at the quarter-final hurdle in Qatar as goals from Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud secured victory for the reigning world champions. Harry Kane had equalised for England before the latter had found the net – and had another opportunity to draw his side level only to blast a second penalty high over Hugo Lloris’ crossbar.
Whilst the main headlines from the game will have been the Tottenham man’s miss – and France progressing to their second-consecutive World Cup semi-final – another would certainly have been the performance of the man in the middle Sampaio.
The Brazilian made a number of baffling decisions throughout the 90 minutes – a list that includes missing a foul on Bukayo Saka in the build-up to France’s goal, an array of penalty appeals, whilst he also needed help from VAR to award Kane’s second spot-kick.
In analysing the game, former defender Neville took aim at Sampaio for his bizarre performance. Speaking to ITV, the ex-Man Utd man said: “The referee had a nightmare game, an absolute joke of a referee. I’m not saying that was all down to England’s defeat because that’s making excuses. He was just a bad referee, rank bad.”
Neville wasn’t the only former England international to have taken aim at the referee both during and after the match. Iconic striker and Match of the Day host Gary Lineker also vented his fury during a Twitter commentary.
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Referencing two contentious first-half situations, he wrote: “One hundred percent foul on Saka. One hundred percent penalty on Kane.”
He followed that up with: “One of these days, just once, we [England] might get a decision in our favour.”
With the referee’s performance having been questioned on multiple fronts, England boss Gareth Southgate was also quizzed on his thoughts. He however refused to criticise the officials and instead preferred to praise both his side and the opposition.
He said: “It’s pointless me going into that [the referee]. I’d rather talk about our players.
“Congratulations to France, they know they’ve been in a hell of a game and we’ve given a top team a game and I don’t think we could’ve done anymore.”
England will now head home having failed to better their semi-final finish in Russia four years ago. Meanwhile, France will progress and will take on Morocco after they became the first-ever African side to reach the last four of the World Cup with their slender 1-0 win over Portugal.
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