Fifa World Cup: Referee who has sent off three England players will officiate World Cup semifinal

Argentina's Lionel Messi argues with referee Cuneyt Cakir. Photo / Getty

A referee with a history of sending off England players will oversee their attempt to reach their first World Cup final for 52 years.

Cuneyt Cakir, who has shown red cards to John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Gary Cahill, has been placed in charge of the country's semifinal against Croatia.

The vastly experienced Turk is also the referee who made the highly controversial decision to send off Nani in Sir Alex Ferguson's final Champions League match in charge of Manchester United.

The three red cards shown by Cakir to England players all came in 2012. The first caused Terry to miss Chelsea's Champions League final, although the club's then captain only had himself to blame after inexplicably driving a knee into Alexis Sanchez in the second leg of their epic semifinal win over Barcelona.

Cakir then dismissed Gerrard for the first time in his England career in a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, showing the captain two yellow cards.

Gerrard, who was banned for the following game against San Marino, accused Cakir of being card happy, saying: "I don't think there was a bad tackle in the game."

The referee showed Cahill a straight red card in Chelsea's Club World Cup final defeat to Corinthians after the defender kicked out at Emerson in the final minute of the game.

The referee's most contentious red, however, was reserved for Nani, with Cakir provoking outrage by dismissing the winger for a waist-high challenge on Alvaro Arbeloa in United's Champions League last-16 second-leg defeat to Real Madrid in 2013.

United had been leading 1-0 at the time and were ahead in the tie on away goals but went on to lose the game 2-1 and crashed out of Europe 3-2 on aggregate.

Ferguson was left "distraught" by the decision, which saw Rio Ferdinand sarcastically applaud Cakir after the final whistle and the referee receive abuse and death threats via Twitter.

This will be his second World Cup semifinal after he took charge of Argentina's 2014 win against Holland.

It will also be his third match at Russia 2018, following Iran's Group B victory over Morocco and Argentina's Group D win over Nigeria.