Petition demanding review of Colombia v England hits 200k signatures

England won the game on penalties, after Harry Kane's second-half opener was cancelled out by Yerry Mina's last-gasp header in normal time.

Jordan Pickford helped the Three Lions end their penalty shootout hoodoo and reach the World Cup quarter-finals at the expense of the South American outfit in Moscow.

After decades stewing on his Euro 96 semi-final miss against Germany, Gareth Southgate has spent recent months trying to improve their chances in Russia if it went all the way.

Things looked set to go pear-shaped when Jordan Henderson's penalty was saved, only for Mateus Uribe's spot-kick to rattle the bar and goalkeeper Pickford to deny Carlos Bacca.

The petition, which can be found on change.org, highlights two 'key' decisions in the game, which translates to:

'1) Penalty in favor of England, for a nonexistent foul and which was evidently judged wrongly by FIFA referee Mark Geiger.

2) Carlos Bacca's legitimate goal, in a play where the referee wrongly judged that there was illegitimacy when considering that when the goal was produced, there were two balls inside the pitch, which the television cameras proved, was NOT CORRECTLY COURT.'

The petition, set up by Juan Diego Garcia Muñoz, then goes onto demand that 'FIFA is requested to review these two actions, in order to set a precedent for fair play, where good play prevails, legality and guarantees for participating teams.'

Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona has been the most high-profile critic of the referee, stating that it was "a monumental theft" for the Colombia team.

Speaking on Argentinian TV, Maradona said: "I saw a monumental theft. I apologise to all the Colombian people, but they must know the players are not to blame.

"It is the man who decides who the referee is who is to blame. A man like that (Geiger) should not be put in charge of a game of that magnitude.

"With all due respect, Pierluigi Collina, as the man who designates the referees, he is very bad. He must apologise to the Colombian people.

"I told (FIFA president) Gianni Infantino that if I worked for FIFA I would change everything. It has to be transparent. That's why I didn't go there.

"The referee will know a lot about baseball, but he has no idea about football. The Colombian players asked for VAR and he did not give it to them.

"Twice the English threw themselves to the ground and he did not admonish them. This was theft."

He has since said sorry for his comments, following FIFA's response, stating that "I said a couple of things and, I admit, some of them are unacceptable. My apologies to FIFA and its president."

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