French outlet L’Equipe are notorious for their harsh player ratings and the newspaper has produced their latest rankings following France’s 2-1 victory over England.
France progressed to the last four of the World Cup after overcoming Gareth Southgate’s side.
Goals from Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud set up a clash against Morocco in the semi final.
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But that doesn’t begin to tell even half of the story.
England felt hard done by after a number of refereeing decisions.
They felt Bukayo Saka was fouled just 25 seconds before Tchouameni’s opener but the Brazilian referee, Wilton Sampaio didn’t.
Moments later, England were denied a penalty when Harry Kane was brought down by Dayot Upamecano. Sampaio didn’t award a free kick while replays showed it may well have been inside the penalty area.
If it was up to English media, Sampaio may well have been given a 1/10 rating for his refereeing performance.
However, L’Equipe handed him a 4/10.
But how did they rate the players during the quarter final?
Let’s take a look:
L’Equipe’s player ratings for England vs France
READ MORE: Harry Maguire’s interview about referee after World Cup defeat
England’s ratings vs France
Starting with England, a host of 5’s and 6’s is pretty par for the course as far as L’Equipe are concerned. However, two players didn’t receive an ‘average’ rating.
Phil Foden was given a 4/10 – the joint worst rating on the pitch.
Meanwhile, Saka was handed a 7. For L’Equipe, that is high praise indeed. In regards to Saka’s performance, they wrote: “Complete performance from the Gunner. Clearly the most dangerous forward today.”
Southgate was also given a 4/10.
France’s ratings vs England
As for France, Hugo Lloris picked up the star man with a 8/10 performance making a string of crucial saves throughout the match.
There were 7s for the impressive Antoine Griezmann and the match-winner, Giroud.
Theo Hernandez was handed a 4 with his silly foul on Mason Mount giving England a late penalty that they weren’t able to take.
Incidentally, Kylian Mbappe was kept very quiet by Kyle Walker and only earned a 5/10.
Didier Deschamps’, France’s manager, was given 7/10.
France will now face Morocco in the semi final on Wednesday night as they look to reach back-to-back World Cup finals.
If they manage to get the better of the first African side to reach a World Cup semi, either Argentina or Croatia await. Those two sides clash in the first semi final on Tuesday.
According to the bookmakers, France are now slight favourites to retain their crown and become world champions once again.
They have two tough matches ahead of them before they can start thinking of lifting the World Cup trophy, though.
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