England.

[Connell10]

I hope the whole of england now agrees that we just aint good enough! The best team won last night and i think we did well just to get out of our group! I for one am glad its all over!

[paulmason]

The best team did win but it could have been so different and why did Rooney start, as he was dogshit........... again.

At half time it was clear to the man on the moon that Rooney, Milner and Young were doing nothing and Roy should have been brave to put Caroll, Walcott and the Ox on and gone for it.

[Factamondo]

with england its always 'if' 'but' whys'...i actually think this is the poorest england squad in a long long time...to get out of the group stages n go out on pens in some bizarre why is 'a s good as we coulda hoped for'!

[Factamondo]

with england its always 'if' 'but' whys'...i actually think this is the poorest england squad in a long long time...to get out of the group stages n go out on pens in some bizarre way is 'a s good as we coulda hoped for'!

[Bluehoop]

Given how average we are, I'm content to go out on pens to Italy in the quarters rather than get stuffed out of sight by the Germans in the semis.

[MattyRangers]

The Germans will breeze past Italy and then beat Spain in a close final IMO.

God knows why we didnt play Ox yestrday; Young was dog poo. Only reason I can think of is Roy had 1 eye on penalties and fancied Young as a taker (oh what a great decision that was in hindsight).

In England we seem to molly coddle our youngsters for years. "Oh he's only young lets wrap him in cottonwool" and we seem to still refer to them as youngsters when theyre 22 and 23. Other nations throw their kids in at the deep end and excel. Ox didnt look fazed at all when he played vs France and actually looked pretty threatening. We need to change our whole mentality if we are ever going to do anything as a national football team.

[Hitman34]

I hope the whole of england now agrees that we just aint good enough! The best team won last night and i think we did well just to get out of our group! I for one am glad its all over!

Yes connell, england are s.h.i.t. .............................................

NEXTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

[Norths]

I hope the whole of england now agrees that we just aint good enough! The best team won last night and i think we did well just to get out of our group! I for one am glad its all over!

Think we realised this a few tournaments back.

[Johnnykc]

The Germans will breeze past Italy and then beat Spain in a close final IMO.

God knows why we didnt play Ox yestrday; Young was dog poo. Only reason I can think of is Roy had 1 eye on penalties and fancied Young as a taker (oh what a great decision that was in hindsight).

In England we seem to molly coddle our youngsters for years. "Oh he's only young lets wrap him in cottonwool" and we seem to still refer to them as youngsters when theyre 22 and 23. Other nations throw their kids in at the deep end and excel. Ox didnt look fazed at all when he played vs France and actually looked pretty threatening. We need to change our whole mentality if we are ever going to do anything as a national football team.

good post.....england should have overhauled the self proclaimed 'golden generation' back in 2008

[Rebel R's]

Rather than everyone say England were crap why not give Italy some credit,they are a good team and yes,they fully deserved to win.Expect a Spain v Germany final

[Johnnykc]

Rather than everyone say England were crap why not give Italy some credit,they are a good team and yes,they fully deserved to win.Expect a Spain v Germany final

I think England would make any team look good!

[Rebel R's]

Think expectation levels might have been too high and that always leads to disappointment,England simply are not as good as Spain,Italy and Germany but are better than most other European countries,Ireland included.England did well to get to quater finals and went out on penalties to former world champions,no shame in that

[Factamondo]

as 'the birthplace of the beautiful game' this burden has unfortunately become an albatros round our neck.....we have no god given right to be world/european champions as our one flukey world cup win proves...yes we could have made two more major finals if spot kicks went our way but the facts are we've never ever kept up with the brazils/argentinas/germanys/italys/spains/hollands n even checzs for that matter.....infrastructure/coaching/too many foreign imports the 'underlying reasons' why have been there for years and never addressed properly by the fa(joke of an organisation) ......media expectations dont help and the sky stranglehold on the way the game is projected heap more misery on those that follow the game week in week out.....we produce fairly decent under 21 sides yet very few go on to win regular senior places...why is that??

i often think we hold on to established 'stars' too long and never naturally evolve onto the next level and therefore we become stuck in a rut too often...at our own club its clear mark hughes sees the need to evolve and is addressing these issues with gusto and vision......im actually quite happy with our results in the euros given the quality of our team/squad...yes the style we witnessed was not to our liking but a ford fiesta engine in a rolls royce body will not perform like a genuine supercar......i feel this will be an endless saga still unsolved til the day i die!¬

[QPR Richard]

I think the coaching system needs sorting out root and branch, from the kiddies leagues up. The FA needs to look at how the successful countries do it because I don't believe it's luck. What I find frustrating is that even our top players struggle to do the basic things well. It's all very well being able to execute the occasional bicycle kick, but if you can't do simple things like passing or ball retention then you don't have a hope.

[stainrodisalegend]

Think anyone who dwells on the penalties or goes in for "why didn't the manager bring on x player or take off that one" completely misses the point. We weren't just beaten, we were humiliated. Rarely can a team ever have been thrashed so comprehensively nil-nil. We were played off the park, and wd have been with whatever combination you had picked. agree rooney, young and milner have been shocking all tournament(the latter is never an international player for me) but there was no great match changer sitting on the bench. i always long for one of these interviewers to ask the real question: "you all act like big stars on massive money for your club sides but at the very highest level in international tournaments time and time again you are shown to be simply average - why do you think that is?" I wasn't that disappointed last night. Have been upset too many times by that team. Now I just take it for granted we will flatter to deceive and any fluky win is a bonus.