Diego Maradona's England rant

Diego Maradona has accused England of theft after Gareth Southgate's meted out justice to Colombia's men.

Maradona, the man whose "Hand of God' cheated Argentina through vs the Three Lions at the 1986 tournament in Mexico, insists that Gareth Southgate's men got the benefit of a FIFA stitch up to send them to the last eight of the World Cup.

In a scathing attack on Argentine TV, he claimed that the American referee Mark Geiger was out of his depth, and that referees' chief Pierluigi Collina should have to apologise to the whole Colombian nation for appointing him for the game, and that the penalty given for Carlos Sanchez's grapple with Harry Kane was a foul instigated by the England captain.

Maradona insisted: “The penalty was not a foul. In fact, it was Kane's fault. “The referee is looking somewhere else and when he turns his head, Kane is on the floor. “Kane used his arm to hook Sanchez and then threw himself down. “I repeat, why didn't the referee ask for the VAR? Colombia died standing. That's why I applaud them.”

“Twice the English threw themselves to the ground and he did not admonish them. This was theft.” Colombia had six players booked, including Wilmer Barrios, who should have been shown a red card for his first-half headbutt on Jordan Henderson. Kane both won and converted the penalty in the 57th-minute which saw England take the lead, but Colombia forced extra-time thanks to Yerry Mina's 93rd minute header before England triumphed, and securing their first ever World Cup penalty shoot out victory.