The Linesman whose cock-up help send England spinning out of the World Cup claimed last night that he had not made an error at all.

Uruguayan flagman Mauricio Espinosa missed what hundreds of millions of fans around the world saw clearly as Frank Lampard's shot crashed off the bar and two feet over the German line in Bloemfontein.

And after finally arriving back in Montevideo, Espinosa insisted he was not to blame for the worst decision of the World Cup - even though he was sent home because of the howler.

Espinosa said: “Nobody can say I made a mistake because it was not a technical failure.

“This was a fateful incident from a very fast shot that I could not see properly, even though I was located in the right place.

“These are things that can happen in football. Unfortunately they happened to us.

“If you look at the England game and the others, technically we did very well and were very consistent.

“But when these things happen, you just have to accept them. Life goes on.”

Espinosa’s refusal to accept the gravity of his mistake came despite the Uruguayan officials revealing that he, along with referee Jorge Larrionda and his colleagues, realised the scale of the shocker when they got into the sanctuary of their dressing room at the Free State Stadium at half-time.

“When we got to the dressing room we do not see any video, but we could sense in the environment that something had happened,” added Espinosa.

“Wayne Rooney had told me it was over the line but it was only when we heard the comments of the television that was the moment when we realized what happened.

“It was a great bitterness and sadness after everything that we had worked for so long to be at the World Cup. Luckily the game ended without problems, despite everything.”

“If you devote your life to refereeing, you know there is nothing you can do after the event, you are always left exposed.”

“But for me it was a great experience. We did everything we had to do. What happened in the England game was something you cannot train for. I repeat, what happened to us was just Fate.”