MX23RW : Monday, July 9 17:00:58

Gary Neville: 'Raheem Sterling was brilliant'

Neville: 'Raheem Sterling was brilliant'
© Reuters
Former England international Gary Neville praises Three Lions attacker Raheem Sterling for his performance in Saturday's World Cup quarter final win over Sweden.

Former England international Gary Neville has praised Three Lions attacker Raheem Sterling for his performance in Saturday's World Cup quarter final win over Sweden.

The Manchester City man missed two opportunities in the first half, but continued alongside Harry Kane up front before being substituted late in the second half.

Speaking to ITV, Neville said that the criticism of Sterling was "disgusting", adding that the City winger did well to continue pressing the Swedish defence.

"The actual treatment at half-time of [Sterling] across social media was absolutely disgusting, and isn't representative of the performance he put in," the former defender said.

"To run in-behind Granqvist all that time, he kept getting in and getting in. OK, we didn't have the cherry on the cake, the goal, where all of a sudden you're a hero, but it was a brilliant performance."

When asked about the Three Lions' performances, Neville said: "Absolutely incredible. An amazing job. I have to say over the last 25 years of England, when we're winning we usually drop deep and protect, and when we're losing we get desperate.

"This team, with every performance I've seen in this tournament, it has been controlled and composed. Against Colombia, it was a perfect performance until 90 minutes. Yes, they conceded a goal and lost it a bit for 10 minutes, but got it back and were in control.

"It's the most mature, calm England display that I've seen in a long, long time. I've not seen this level of composure from our team."

England will play Croatia in the semi finals on Wednesday evening.

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England's Raheem Sterling in action with Sweden's Robin Olsen on July 7, 2018
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