England players Jack Butland and Adam Lallana admitted their first experience of video assistant referees was not flawless in France.
Shortly after half-time in the 3-2 defeat by Les Bleus Dele Alli was tripped by Raphael Varane, with Italian official Davide Massa pointing to the spot before referring the decision to the television team - who were taking part in FIFA's ongoing trial of the system.
Compatriots Marco Guida and Massimiliano Irrati took around a minute watching replays of the incident and communicating with Massa via earpiece.
The spot-kick was eventually upheld, and despatched by Harry Kane, with Varane seeing red for his foul.
England have never played a game with VAR protocols before and, although it worked in their favour at Stade de France, there was a sense of uncertainty in the stadium - both on the field and in the stands.
Indeed, the message 'l'assistance vidéo à l'arbitrage' only appeared on the big screens after the final verdict had been delivered, with no replays shown to those in attendance.
Goalkeeper Butland had only been on the pitch a matter of seconds, having replaced Tom Heaton in a planned substitution during the interval, and while broadly supportive of the technology hinted the delay had been excessive on this occasion.
"We'd not been briefed but I'd seen before the game it was going to be trialled...the problem was it took a long time," he said.
"Other sports use it and if we can get to the speed rugby use it at it would be successful. If it leads to the right decisions, brilliant. Hopefully they have got it right.
"But I think it's important it's done quickly because the quicker they get to the right decision the better."
The authorities are keen that video referrals should be completed as briskly as possible, with VARs only instructed to overturn on-field decisions if they are clearly wrong rather than officiate every incident from scratch.
Lallana, meanwhile, was on the bench when the incident unfolded. He had no qualms about the ultimate verdict but conceded there was a lack of clarity as events unfolded on the field.
"It was a blatant penalty from where I was. It was maybe a bit confusing at the time but that's the whole trial process really," he said.
"If it helps get the right decisions then I'm all for it."
The International Football Association Board, independent guardians of the laws of the game, approved VAR testing last summer at a meeting in Cardiff and FIFA hope to be in a position to use it at the 2018 World Cup.
In a briefing note released at the time, IFAB said: "The aim of the experiment is NOT to achieve 100% accuracy for all decisions as there is no desire to destroy the essential flow and emotions of football which result from the game's almost non-stop action and the general absence of lengthy stoppages. The philosophy is minimum interference, maximum benefit.''
Speaking in his post-match press conference, England manager Gareth Southgate said: "Clearly even with video not every decision will be 100 (per cent) - you won't get every single decision right.
''There will still be an element of one person's judgement within that. I assume the referee wanted to make sure and if he's got that technology to do that, then it's a sensible decision."
Source: PA
