English football fans are riding the crest of a wave after their national team sealed a place in the World Cup finals for the first time since 1990 on Saturday afternoon.Gareth Southgate’s side, who have the support of the entire nation behind them following their surprising run to the last four, will play Croatia on Wednesday night following a 2-0 victory over Sweden in Samara.Goals either side of half-time from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli sealed a famous victory for the Three Lions.England are now second favourites to win this summer’s World Cup finals behind France, who go head-to-head with Belgium on Tuesday night.The bookmakers have Southgate’s men as favourites ahead of the match against Croatia, who knocked out tournament hosts Russia on penalties following a gruelling 120 minutes on Saturday night.Southgate is expected to stick with the same starting line-up for the game against Croatia, which might disappoint some people.Despite England’s victory, there were one or two players who came in for heavy criticism on social media.

Sterling's rating on BBC Player Rater angers people

Alli was blasted for his performance prior to his goal - in fairness, the Tottenham midfielder didn’t look 100 per cent fit - while Sterling was also slammed for his display.

However, many people believe the criticism of the 23-year-old has been completely over the top. And they’re particularly furious after seeing the forward’s unflattering rating on the BBC’s Player Rater.

Sterling, who many people believe has been unfairly targeted by sections of the media in recent weeks, received a rating from the BBC’s audience of just 5.23.

That is by far and away the lowest rating of any of England’s players who started the match.

How the BBC themselves rated Sterling's performance

The BBC themselves gave Sterling a 6/10 - the same rating as Alli, Ashley Young and Harry Kane - noting: “Lacking confidence in front of goal but his effort and all-round game was decent. How he needs a goal though.”

However, football fans using the Player Rater application on the BBC Sport website clearly felt Sterling was England’s worst performer by a distance.

As well as Gary Lineker, another high-profile former player to come out and publicly defend Sterling in the aftermath of the online backlash is Gary Neville.

"The actual treatment at half-time of [Sterling] across social media was absolutely disgusting, and isn't representative of the performance he put in,” the former Manchester United captain said on ITV, per Sky Sports.

"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."

Did Raheem Sterling deserve his 5.23 rating v Sweden - or is it harsh? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.