Jude Bellingham and Harry Maguire both believe referee Wilton Sampaio was not at the level needed for a World Cup quarter-final following England s loss to France.
The Three Lions saw their quest for a third successive semi-final appearance in major tournaments brought to an end by the holders, who claimed a 2-1 win in Al Khor.
Though England controlled a tight encounter for long periods, they often found themselves pegged back by a vigorous French defence, with referee Sampaio happy to let several industrial challenges slide.
Bellingham acknowledged any official can have a tough match afterwards, but felt the Brazilian was not up to scratch for a match of such prestige.
Anyone can have a bad game, players and referees, he told ITV. [But] I think he wasn t where he should have been today in terms of the level for a game like this.
There are more factors as to why we lost. This definitely isn t me putting it all on him, [as] we were the ones who played the game. But I don t think he was at the level tonight.
I think there were a few [fouls] around the box in the first half. We are deadly at set pieces, and I think any one of those can make the difference.
7 This is the seventh time England have been eliminated from the quarter-final stages of the World Cup, more than any other side in the history of the competition. Heartbreak.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe)
France scored their opening goal on the back of a contentious no-foul call for a tackle on Bukayo Saka, while England s second penalty which Harry Kane decisively missed needed a VAR intervention to be awarded.
Maguire was less than impressed too, telling BBC Sport: From minute one, there were five or six fouls not one yellow card. It s a foul for the first goal, leading up to it on Bukayo.
I can t really go into explaining how bad his performance was. I don t want to go into too much because I ll end up getting fined.
But even though the big decisions were wrong, he never gave us anything. Throughout the game he was really poor.
