Former England defender Gary Neville has hit out at the criticism Raheem Sterling received on social media on Saturday afternoon.

Sterling missed a golden chance to send England two goals ahead in the latter stages of the first half of their quarter-final with Sweden at the 2018 World Cup.

The Three Lions still went on to record a 2-0 win - booking their spot in the semi-finals as a result - but Sterling was heavily criticised for his first-half performance against the Swedes in Samara.

Neville has leapt to the defence of the Manchester City attacker, insisting that he put in "a brilliant performance" in the last-eight clash.

Neville told ITV: "The actual treatment at half time of [Sterling] across social media was absolutely disgusting, and isn't representative of the performance he put in.

"To run in-behind [Andreas] Granqvist all that time, he kept getting in and getting in. OK, we didn't have the cherry on the cake, the goal, where all of a sudden you're a hero, but it was a brilliant performance."

England will face either Croatia or Russia in the semi-finals of the World Cup on Wednesday night.