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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Mathew Davies

Gary Neville slams 'absolute joke' referee following England's World Cup defeat to France

ITV pundit Gary Neville has slammed the referee for his performance in England's World Cup defeat to France.

The match, which the French won 2-1, was filled with controversy and incident, with Brazilian official Wilton Sampaio at the centre of a number of flashpoints.

France's opener from Aurelien Tchouameni saw Bukayo Saka arguably fouled in the build-up, while England had an early penalty shout turned down after Harry Kane was bundled over in the box.

Sampaio did award England two spot-kicks - one of which Kane converted and the other fired over the bar - but Neville feels the man in the middle had a shocking game.

Post match, Neville said: "You see French defending it was startling, we knew it was the weak point in their team but I don’t think we knew they’d make those poor decision in those types of areas.

"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."

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