World Cup referee returns

The Yorkshireman, 39 today, has been heavily criticised, not least by the Dutch media, after issuing 14 yellow cards during Spain's fractious 1-0 win – two of which led to the dismissal of Holland defender Johnny Heitinga.

But people within the English game have been quick to leap to the defence of the official, pointing out that the players' indiscipline necessitated the extensive use of the yellow card.

"Whatever the match, you always hope that the officials won't need to be heavily involved. However, we (his assistants were fellow Englishmen Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey) had to raise our profile in order to keep control," Webb said in a statement released through the Premier League.

"We don't feel that we had much choice except to manage the game in the way we did. We came away feeling satisfied that we'd done a tough job in difficult circumstances to the best of our abilities.

"It was an extremely challenging match to handle, but it would have been so for any referee. It is one of the toughest games we will ever be involved in and we feel that we worked hard to keep the focus on the football as much as possible."