Harry Maguire was left dumbfounded by the referee’s decision to award Uruguay a late penalty against England on Friday night.
The Three Lions were in control for almost all of the friendly at Wembley Stadium and thought they had secured victory with ten minutes to go when Ben White scored on his first international appearance in four years.
The Arsenal defender, however, gave away a penalty, which required a VAR review, and was converted by Real Madrid midfielder Fede Valverde in stoppage time.
Harry Maguire slams ‘ridiculous’ penalty decision
Maguire felt the visitors were awarded a “soft” penalty, especially in the context of Ronald Araujo’s crunching challenge on Phil Foden going unpunished earlier in the match.
“I felt like we controlled the whole game, they didn’t really create a chance,” he told ITV. “We could’ve been better, we know that. When we made the changes, we lost a bit of the rhythm and the game plan, but that’s what happens in these games when you make changes on 60, 70 minutes.
“But we had control of the game, they didn’t really get in our box and then they were given a ridiculous penalty.
“It’s soft. He’s kicked the ball over the bar and then Ben just goes to try to block the shot.”
That was not the only controversial moment in the game, as Manuel Ugarte avoided an early shower despite receiving two bookings. The Manchester United midfielder had the second yellow card rescinded, but Maguire revealed that England were informed afterwards that the first one was actually shown to Jose Gimenez.
“We’ve been told Ugarte was shown two yellow cards and the second one was rescinded, which is a new one for us. Now we’ve been told the first of those yellow cards for Ugarte was actually for Gimenez. So rather than two yellow cards, Ugarte got no yellow cards.”
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