Referee Wilton Sampaio ‘had an absolute nightmare’ in England’s World Cup loss to France, says Gary Neville

Gary Neville heaped criticism on referee Wilton Sampaio following England’s defeat to France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, describing the Brazilian’s performance as “rank, bad.”

England fell to a 2-1 defeat against the defending champions, but had a chance to force extra-time as Harry Kane fired a late penalty over the bar.

The Three Lions performed superbly at Al Bayt Stadium, and there was a feeling a few key decisions went against Gareth Southgate’s men.

There appeared to be a foul on Bukayo Saka in the lead up to France’s opening goal, while there was a close call for a penalty that went against Kane in the first half.

Kane scored a penalty to draw England level and cancel out Aurelien Tchouameni‘s excellent opening goal.

Olivier Giroud scored what proved to be the winning goal for France, before the drama of Kane’s late penalty miss – which was awarded after Sampaio was sent to the monitor to reconsider his decision not to give the spot kick for a foul by Theo Hernandez on Mason Mount in real time.

Sampaio’s performance was critiqued, and Neville was disappointed with the official’s handling of the match.

“The referee, I thought he had an absolute nightmare,” Neville said on ITV. “An absolute joke of a referee.

“I am not saying that was all down to England’s defeat, people will say that’s excuses, but he was just a bad referee. Rank, bad.”

England were the better team in their defeat to France, according to Roy Keane, while Ian Wright was surprised by the decision to substitute Saka who looked the Three Lions’ most potent attacking threat.

“First half did not go so well and we had a couple of decisions go against us, but I thought we came back well from those,” Wright said. “There was a period where we were all over them.
“I was disappointed to see Saka go off, I thought he had Hernandez in his pocket.”

Reflecting on the penalty miss, Wright said: “Just disappointed because Harry is our guy. He has missed the penalty but he is the man and has done brilliantly.

“It is a disappointing one.”

“Top-level sport is brutal, absolutely brutal,” Keane said. “England were outstanding and were the better team. But you have to give France credit for finding a way to win.”

While England’s World Cup campaign is now over, France will head into a semi-final with Morocco.