Following England's 3-2 victory over Mexico in the FIFA World Cup Round of 16, coach Thomas Tuchel strongly criticized the officiating team. However, former England international Hart publicly stated that the referees had made the correct decisions on several key rulings.

Tuchel said in a post-match interview: "This is simply not good enough. The referee was not good enough, and the fourth official was not good enough, that's my conclusion."

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Tuchel was mainly dissatisfied with two decisions. In the 54th minute, England defender Quansah was shown a straight red card after VAR intervention. Eleven minutes later, Kane kicked Gutierrez's foot inside his own penalty area, and the referee awarded Mexico a penalty.

Regarding the penalty decision, Tuchel questioned: "Was that really a clear and obvious error? Obviously not."

However, Hart had a completely different view. He stated: "The referee made the correct decisions in all three key situations. I think Tuchel was wrong."

Regarding Quansah's red card, Hart was equally clear: "Quansah was rightly sent off."

Darren Cann, who served as an assistant referee in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final, also defended referee Faghani. He pointed out that Kane had indeed kicked a Mexican player's foot in the penalty area, so the penalty decision was not in question.

Cann also believed that Quansah's foul was overly forceful and warranted a "very clear red card."

Tuchel stood by his stance. He was particularly displeased that the static image of Quansah's foul was shown on the stadium's big screen and said: "I really hope they didn't make the red card decision based on a static image."

Subsequently, Tuchel also questioned the staffing of the VAR team. The three video assistant referees for the match were all from South America: Nicolas Gallo of Colombia, Juan Lara of Chile, and Juan Soto of Venezuela.

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