2022 World Cup referee Sampaio slammed after costly mistakes in England’s loss to France
World Cup referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio ‘didn’t play to the level you would expect’ in England’s quarter-final loss to France, former Premier League referee says Dermot Gallagher.
The Three Lions crash out in Qatar after being beaten 2-1 by the world champions. Aurélien Tchouameni opened the scoring after 17 minutes, completing a move that appeared to include a foul on Bukayo Saka in the build-up.
Twice England received penalties, both times after the video assistant referee intervened, but Harry Kane could only convert one as Olivier Giroud’s winner sent on France .
A number of England players were left frustrated with Sampaio on the night, with Harry Maguire insisting “a lot of decisions went against us”, and Gary Neville describing his performance as “a joke”.
Wilton Pereira Sampaio has faced serious criticism over his display.
/ ReutersDiscussing the foul on Saka, Gallagher told Sky Sports: “I think it’s a foul. I don’t think there’s any doubt there’s a foul, you can see it’s a foul. is a fault.
“If the referee doesn’t see him, the assistant has perfect eyesight, he looks straight in the eye and is very, very close. If the assistant signaled, everyone would have accepted that decision.
“Then the problem is that there are 25 seconds between the incident and the France goal. As we know in the Premier League, VAR would never go that far. That’s not why VAR is here.”
On the referee’s performance as a whole, Gallagher added: “Whether he’s nervous or the opportunity comes his way, [Sampaio] certainly did not work as one would expect from a referee of this level.
“He wasn’t the level of a World Cup quarter-final referee. You can’t say he wasn’t at that level but I would say he didn’t produce that day- the.
“During the 90 minutes, he didn’t reflect that level. The problems stemmed from decisions he didn’t make rather than those he did.”
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