England star Lucy Bronze has called out Australian referee Casey Reibelt after snubbing the FIFA Women’s World Cup official’s handshake on Tuesday night.
Even after a thumping 6-1 victory over China, Bronze was still holding on to two controversial moments either side of half-time.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Lucy Bronze snubs Aussie referee after dramatic match.
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The European champions thought they had gone up 4-0 when Lauren James scored a stunning goal in stoppage time.
A VAR check, though, determined Bronze had been offside in the lead-up prior to getting involved in the play.
“I’ll tell you now, Bronze owes (James) a drink because that could have been goal of the tournament,” Heather Garriock said on Channel 7, arguing the England star should have known to stay out of the way.
The disallowed goal hardly affected the contest but Bronze’s frustrations boiled over when she was caught up in further drama in the second half.
England parried away a Chinese corner but the Asian champions quickly appealed for a handball, with another VAR intervention finding the ball had indeed struck the 31-year-old’s left arm.
China scored from the penalty spot and a stunned Bronze received a yellow card from Reibelt for the incident.
“She’s actually lucky the goalkeeper (Mary Earps) was behind her – if the keeper’s not behind her it’s a potential red-card offence, and then she’s out of the Round of 16 (with suspension), and for what?” Adam Peacock said.
Garriock added: “That would’ve been a really bad day at the office for Lucy Bronze.”
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Bronze would go on to play a role as James officially scored her second and England’s fourth goal 10 minutes later.
She earned an early rest with victory assured but that stint on the bench, though, only seemed to let her stew.
Bronze shook the hands of the assistant referees but clearly ignored the outstretched hand of Reibelt, sharing a laugh about the decision with James.
Afterwards, Bronze said she felt targeted by the official.
“I said that to the referee ‘I don’t know why you’ve given me offside’. Personally I had more go against me than anyone else,” she said.
“It wasn’t a fun game in that respect, the referee, for me. So, I was quite disappointed with that game to come off with that performance.
“The most important thing is we won, we’re through to the next game, no one else got injured.”
The penalty call and subsequent yellow card still rankled, too.
“I knew (the ball) hit my hand but it wasn’t deliberate. Unless I cut my arm off I don’t know how I get my arm out the way,” Bronze said.
“If I was trying to hit the ball away I would have hit my hand in the air. I knew it wasn’t deliberate but I guess she just wanted to give me a yellow card for fun.
“Playing for England you tend to know that sometimes decisions don’t go your way and luckily enough for us we finished the game off ourselves.
“I do think LJ’s goal should have stood, she should have had a hat-trick. It would have been a huge moment for her in her first World Cup to score a hat-trick for England.”
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