The end of the road for Portugal in the FIFA World Cup has come, and while A Selecao's captain admitted that they were beaten fair and square by Morocco, he had a complaint for FIFA officers in charge of assigning referees to all games.
Speaking in the post-match interviews, Pepe was not happy with the performance of Argentine referee Facundo Tello, since he believes there were some kind of pressures on him to keep Portugal out of the semi-finals.
Later in the interview, Pepe revealed that his appointment as ref should have been changed after the events that took place between Argentina and the Netherlands, where Lionel Messi had a very unflattering view on Mateu Lahoz's work.
"We conceded a goal we did not expect, but I have to look into another issue here. It is unacceptable to have a referee from Argentina in charge of the game. After what happened yesterday with Messi complaining all the time, it is quite strange," Pepe stated.
The defender went even further and hinted that the tournament will be won by Argentina by popular decree.
"I can bet everything I have on Argentina winning the title," Pepe added.
"He did not see the play where he could have awarded a penalty against Bruno Fernandes. We had the capacity to win the World Cup, but then we ran into the arrogance of the refs. Argentina will surely be champions. We had to deal with five Argentine refs today, what else can I say? Let's see what ends up happening," Pepe concluded.
The captain's words were echoed by Bruno Fernandes, who complained about a potential penalty kick the referee overlooked during the dying moments of the first half.
"In the first half, there's a clear penalty against me. I was all alone, and I would never fall on the ground when I'm alone in front of goal and I was ready to take the shot," Fernandes said.
Then, Fernandes added to Pepe's words by raising the question on why there are no referees from his own country.
"Being assigned a ref who's country is still playing the Quarterfinals is strange, to say the least. It is odd to see them having a ref still in the competition while Portugal is not being represented by any of their refs. Portuguese refs are usually involved in Champions League games, meaning that they have what it takes to be here. This ref has never been in charge of a UCL game, he is not used to this type of pressure and he lacks the rhythm to keep up with it," Fernandes stated.
This may have been the final game for some of the big names in this team, including Pepe himself and Cristiano Ronaldo, who left the pitch in tears after failing to help A Selecao in their attempt to win the tie.
