Bengaluru, July 9: Gary Neville and David Beckham have jumped to the defence of England and Manchester City star Raheem Sterling as the former English players have hit out at the "disgusting" trolls targeting the attacker.

Sterling is yet to net a goal in the World Cup despite being in the team in four matches out of five and has also been missing goal-scoring opportunities in the tournament on a regular basis.

The attacker was also a subject to social media abuse during the halftime break in the Three Lions' World Cup quarter-final victory over Sweden.

The attacker performed well enough in the game as he made Swedish defensive pair Granqvist and Lindelof busy with his off the ball movement and brilliant runs. However, he again missed a lots of opportunities to net his first World Cup goal and that attracted a lot of trolls and abuses.

However, blasting such abuses and cheap comments, Neville has now praised Sterling's performance and insisted the player is being targetted without any reason. Neville said on ITV: "The actual treatment at half-time of [Sterling] across social media was absolutely disgusting, and isn't representative of the performance he put in.

"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."

David Beckham has defended Raheem Sterling amid criticism 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/3kL1JKXXHg

— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) July 8, 2018

Echoing the same opinion, former England captain David Beckham has also now come forward to Sterling's support and in an Instagram post has told England fans to stop criticising Raheem Sterling and unite behind Gareth Southgate's team.

Beckham said on Instagram: "It's wrong. We are in the semi-final of a World Cup. Every player deserves to be applauded. We as a country are united and behind the team."

Meanwhile, ignoring all the abuses and taunts, Sterling has applauded the support of English fans in Russia. The 23-year-old Man City attacker paid a tribute to the English supporters in his twitter account who cheered the team on in Samara and the millions doing so back home after the game.

Today, I want to thank all that have and continue to support @England as a team, this has helped us achieve what can only be described as a dream!!! To reach the semi finals of a world cup........ WOW! We go again #ThankYou #DreamBig #WorldCup #RS7 × #RS10 pic.twitter.com/FkgPd9VoN7

— Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) July 8, 2018

He said on Twitter: "Today, I want to thank all that have and continue to support England as a team, this has helped us achieve what can only be described as a dream!!! To reach the semi finals of a world cup........ WOW! We go again."

England now has to confront a harder test than their previous encounters in the semifinal where they will come up against Croatia who defeated Russia earlier to progress into the next round. And to outdo the mighty Croatians, the Three Lions will certainly need their number 10 to perform his best.