Arjen Robben says sorry for diving

Miguel Herrera has accused Holland's Arjen Robben of being a cheat. The Mexico manager accuses the referee for his teams elimination.

“Today it was not a wonderful goal that put us out, it was bad decision by the referee, an invented penalty,” he said.

“It seems to me that the reason we were eliminated was the man with the whistle. Although their first goal was good and came from a mistake on our part, the game was heading to extra time. But if the referee invents a penalty of that size, you leave the World Cup after circumstances not created by you. And Robben dived three times for penalties that didn’t exist. He should have been cautioned. If you do that to the guy who tries to cheat, then he can’t cheat again.”

It was Robben earning the penalty in the game’s final moments that took Holland through to the quarter-final. The Dutch playmaker admitted that he had dived earlier in the game when the referee waved played on after he had fallen outside the Mexican area – “It is something I shouldn’t have done,” he told Dutch television. But he was clear there was contact from the Mexican captain Rafael Marquez in those dying moments. And replays suggest he was right.

“That one was a penalty,” Robben said. “But the other in the first half was a dive. I must apologise.”