Qatar 2022: Pepe, Fernandes Question Choice Of Argentine Referee For Portugal Vs Morocco Quarter-final Tie

Portugal duo Pepe and Bruno Fernandes questioned the appointment of Argentine referee Facundo Tello after they crashed out in Saturday’s World Cup Quarter-final clash to Morocco.

The Atlas Lions became the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup as Youssef En-Nesyri’s first-half winner ended Portugal’s campaign.

Pepe missed a glorious chance to level the game in added-time and his frustrations seemed to boil over in the post-match interviews as he questioned why an Argentinean referee was given the game after Argentina’s players criticised officials following their quarter-final win over the Netherlands on Friday.

“I’m going to have to say it. It’s unacceptable for an Argentine referee to referee our game. After what happened yesterday, with Messi talking, all of Argentina talking and the referee comes here.

“What did we play the second half? The goalkeeper dropped to the ground. There were only eight minutes of stoppage time. We worked hard and the referee eight minutes?

“We didn’t play anything in the second half. The only team that played football was us. We are sad. We had the quality to win the World Cup and we didn’t manage to.”

On his part Fernandes raged along the same lines, saying: “I don’t know if they’re going to give the trophy to Argentina.

“I don’t care, I’m going to say what I think and screw them. It’s very weird that a ref officiates us from a country still in the competition.

“Clearly they’ve tilted the field against us.”

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