Portugal gamers Pepe and Bruno Fernandes lashed out on the Argentine referee answerable for their 1-0 World Cup quarter-final defeat by Morocco on Saturday, claiming his nationality impacted the sport. Argentina progressed on Friday by beating the Netherlands and may they attain the ultimate, may play towards Morocco in the event that they win their semi-final towards England or France. The match referee Facundo Tello, his two assistants and the video assistant referee have been all from Argentina.

“It’s unacceptable for an Argentine referee to referee our game,” Pepe mentioned on Portuguese tv.

“After what happened yesterday, with (Lionel) Messi talking, all of Argentina talking, and the referee comes here.

“What did we play within the second half? The goalkeeper dropped to the bottom. There have been solely eight minutes of stoppage time. We labored laborious and the referee (solely added on) eight minutes.”

Argentina striker Messi had complained about the refereeing of his team’s clash with the Netherlands, saying too much time had been added on.

Portugal’s main complaint was that too little had been in their clash with Morocco, critical of supposed time-wasting by the North African side in the second half.

Bruno Fernandes complained that far more injury time should have been added, and that referees from teams still involved in the tournament should not be appointed to matches.

– ‘Knew what to expect’ –

“We already know the way it works… earlier than the sport we already knew what we have been in for, and how much referee we’d discover,” said Fernandes, who was also furious after not being awarded a first-half penalty.

“Unfortunately, in these competitions, the place there are not any Portuguese referees, there are referees from groups which might be nonetheless within the competitors.

“It seems strange to me, to say the least, but I don’t want to get into that, because that’s not the only reason we lost.

“The referee gave two minutes of damage time within the first half and eight within the second. In this second half, the sport was stopped, at minimal, for between 15 and 20 minutes.”

Fernandes added: “We knew that we’d play towards way more than simply Morocco.”

However, his coach Fernando Santos didn’t suppose the officers made a giant distinction in his workforce’s elimination.

“I do not suppose so, I believe he might have referred to as for a foul on one or two (extra) events however typically talking I do not suppose so,” said Santos.

“I believe we might have finished extra and we did not achieve this. I do not suppose we must always blame the referee, it does not make sense.”

The coach, who has a contract until after Euro 2024, said he would discuss his future in the days to come with the Portuguese football federation.

Manchester City Ruben Dias believes the team still has plenty of potential moving forward.

“Above all, it will be important at this second, regardless of the troublesome of digesting (the defeat) to build up extra expertise,” said Dias.

“We have a really younger era with a number of high quality and now we have to have religion that nothing is misplaced.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Featured Video Of The Day

FIFA WC 2022: France Sweat It Out Ahead Of Quarter-Final Clash vs England