‘Not at the level this game requires’ – Jude Bellingham joins England stars criticizing flop World Cup referee for France shocker
JUDE BELLINGHAM has joined the chorus of voices criticizing the referee after England crashed the World Cup against France.
Wilton Sampaio has come under fire after his performance in the huge quarter-final clash as the Three Lions’ dreams came to an abrupt end.
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Aurélien Tchouaméni and Olivier Giroud scored the goals that left England staring at defeat.
But after the match, Sampaio came under fire from players and pundits for his decision-making.
While Gareth Southgate avoided lashing out at the Brazilian referee, the 19-year-old star gave Bellingham a scathing assessment.
The midfielder told ITV: “[Sampaio’s performance was] not good, to be honest, not good. Anyone can have a bad game – players and referees – but I think he wasn’t where he should have been in terms of the level of a game like this.
“There are several factors as to why we lost. This is definitely not me putting everything on him, [as] we were the ones playing the game. But I don’t think he was at his level tonight.”
His words come after Maguire’s own scathing attack on the referee.
The England defender said: “I can’t really explain his performance – the number of decisions he got wrong was actually unbelievable. Really bad.”
While pundit and former Three Lions right-back Gary Neville branded the referee an “absolute joke”.
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England were furious when Dayot Upamecano was adjudged not to have brought down Bukayo Saka in the build-up to France’s opener.
The Bayern Munich man appeared to clip the legs of the 21-year-old before winning the ball in a move that led to Tchouaméni’s long-range volley.
Upamecano was also involved in another moment of controversy when he appeared to hack down Harry Kane on the edge of the box.
England were again insulted when they received neither a penalty nor a free kick for the tackle.
And despite Theo Hernandez appearing to blatantly haggle Mason Mount late in the game, Sampaio waved away a penalty appeal before overturning his decision when VAR intervened.
The controversial judge came just 24 hours. Mateu Lahoz dished out a World Cup record number of yellow cards in Argentina’s fierce clash with Holland.
