It happened again. And still we’re struggling to fathom why England continue to choke at the business end of major tournaments. Crashing out at the quarter final stage after losing on penalties is in danger of becoming a permanent idiosyncrasy. Don’t get me wrong Italy deserved to win but the sheer volume of effort from the Three Lions deserved some sort of reward. But once again the nation is left with the bitter taste of defeat .
Lets just put things into perspective for a moment. Eight weeks and two friendlies was never going to be enough time for Roy Hodgson to get England fully up-to-speed for Euro 2012. How many of you predicted that the Three Lions would emerge from the tournament unbeaten over 90 minutes? Tonight Italy were terrific especially Andrea Pirlo who, despite being 35, dictated the game from start to finish. No one could get close to him. The Azzurri should have won in normal time and kept their nerve during the shootout to set up a semi-final meeting with Germany.
However chewing over the fat of another spot kicks failure is pointless. England succumbed to fatigue tonight and the realisation that they are a million miles away from competing on a level playing field with the best Europe has to offer. Hodgson’s focus on organisation has certainly bore surprisingly positive results and it will be be interesting to see how he’ll do in the World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014.
Still the curse remains and the question now is how will England react to losing on penalties once again?
What did you think of England’s performance tonight?
