Neville slams 'disgusting' Sterling criticism

The Manchester City man fluffed a glorious chance to double England's lead on the stroke of the break, leading to some less than savoury comments being posted on social media, but Neville was quick to defend the winger.

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

"To run in-behind 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."

Despite only holding a two-goal lead against a team with nothing to lose, England looked comfortabl late on against the Swedes, something which wasn't lost on Neville.

"Absolutely incredible. An amazing job. I have to say over the last 25 years of England, when we're winning we usually drop deep and protect, and when we're losing we get desperate," he explained.

"This team, with every performance I've seen in this tournament, it has been controlled and composed. Against Colombia, it was a perfect performance until 90 minutes. Yes, they conceded a goal and lost it a bit for 10 minutes, but got it back and were in control.

"It's the most mature, calm England display that I've seen in a long, long time. I've not seen this level of composure from our team.

"Playing out from the back, making sure they do the right things, not retreating, and for me you've got to give credit to Gareth, John Stones at the centre of that back three, Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and the goalkeeper, because they're the spine of that team. They really are doing a great job."

Finally, Neville credited Gareth Southgate for his decision to rest players against Belgium in the final group game, with defeat in that one providing England with a more forgiving route later on in the tournament.

"We're only playing the teams we're playing because he made a brave decision to rest those players," Neville pointed out.

"The pelters were ready to come, the clouds were circling when he made those eight changes. If we'd played badly and lost against Colombia, it would have been thrown back at him. Make no mistake about that.

"He has manufactured the way in which this team got into this side of the draw. It's a big advantage to us, but that's because of a decision the manager has made."