By Richard Littlejohn
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We might have guessed it was always going to come down to penalties. We’ve been here before.
There was a grim inevitability about England’s elimination from Euro 2012 on penalties. And Italy deserved their victory. But that’s not to pretend it still doesn’t hurt.
Every two years, I kid myself I don’t care. Why invest emotional energy in a bunch of footballers? It’s only a game.
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Beaten: John Terry, right, consoles Ashley Young while Wayne Rooney holds his shirt over his head after England were beaten on penalties
Despair: Ashley Young falls to the ground after missing a goalscoring chance and sums up how every England fan is feeling
It's a knockout: Ashley Cole has his crucial spotkick saved - leaving the Italians the task of scoring their final penalty to secure a semi-final spot
Victory for Italy: Alessandro Diamanti celebrates after scoring the winning penalty in the shoot-out last night to take the Italians through to the semi-finals where they will play Germany
When England kicked off against France 10 days ago, I feigned indifference. So what if England lose? Life goes on. World Cups, European Championships, it’s bound to end in tears.
But England didn’t lose. They drew with France, beat Sweden and Ukraine, finished top of their group and qualified for the quarter finals. Suddenly, it mattered. Three more wins and four and a half decades of bitter disappointment and under-achievement would be consigned to history. Football’s coming home.
Against my better judgment and years of experience I discovered I did care after all. As England progressed and last night’s game against Italy approached, the pulse began to quicken, the optimism returned. This time we really could be in with a chance.
To be honest, it was better when England stuck to the script and crashed out of tournaments prematurely, consumed by hubris and an inflated sense of their own abilities. We’re used to being let down. We can handle it. As John Cleese said in the movie Clockwise: ‘I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand.’
Footballers going home: Manager Roy Hodgson waves as the England team, including captain Steven Gerrard, left, leave their hotel and head back to Britain
Beaten again: Wayne Rooney, left, and Glen Johnson, right, leave England's hotel in Krakow today as they head home after being beaten 4-2 by Italy on penalties
Eliminated: We might have guessed that England's match with Italy was always going to come down to penalties
Eliminated: Roy Hodgson, centre, looks dejected after England are beaten by Italy in Kiev last night
Disaster: England are out after being beaten 4-2 on penalties. Here four fans watch the match in a bar in Leicester Square, London
Beaten: England fans react during last night's 2012 match in the fan zone in Warsaw, Poland
Ordeal: Two young fans watch the game on a big screen in Newcastle. Italy deserved their victory, but it still hurts
Emotional energy: England supporters in a Bristol pub could hardly watch
Agony: It was better when England stuck to the scripts and crashed out of tournaments prematurely
In the third minute, Italy hit the post with goalkeeper Joe Hart well beaten. Was this a portent of an inevitable England defeat, or might this just be our lucky night?
Almost immediately, England carved open the Italian defence and Glen Johnson forced a save from point blank range. Game on.
Welbeck, Parker, then Rooney went close. Italy looked vulnerable. The mercurial Mario Balotelli â€" mad, bad and barking, but infused with brilliance â€" repeatedly fluffed his lines in front of England’s goal.
In pubs, clubs and living rooms the length of the country, millions dared to believe. Roy Hodgson’s artisans were acquiring an aristocratic swagger going forward, but ominously showing signs of frailty in defence.
Half time, all square. Within three minutes of the restart, Italy missed a sitter. Ten thousand England fans in the stadium and 18 million watching on TV back home breathed a collective sigh of relief.
England's terminal problem: A fan watches at Heathrow's Terminal 5 last night, right, after landing at the airport. Left, a fan at the game looks devastatedÂ
Penalty miss: Ashley Young, right, who had his tame spot kick saved last night, arrives back at England's hotel after the defeat
Defeated: Wayne Rooney, left, and goalkeeper Joe Hart arrive back at the England hotel in Krakow last night after being beaten by the Italians
Dejected: Wayne Rooney and his team-mates are heading home
So close: Ashley Young's penalty crashes against the bar in the dramatic shoot-out
Unlucky: England left-back Ashley Cole steps up to take his penalty. He missed.
Penalty heartbreak... again: An England fan reacts during last night's match which ended 0-0 after 120 minutes and went to a shootout
We're going home: English fans look devastated as they crash out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage
Not again: It was painful viewing for these fans, watching the game in an Oxford pub
Come on, boys! Supporters show their frustration at a central London bar
Dramatic: A young fan screams while watching the tense quarter-final at a bar in Leicester
Uncomfortable viewing: A fan in Newcastle covers his eyes with a St George's flag
Twice in quick succession, the Italians should have scored. If Balotelli had brought his shooting boots, if John Terry hadn’t made a crucial intervention, England would have fallen behind. As Gary Lineker observed at half time, this was becoming ‘exquisitely painful’ to watch.
Hodgson sent on his first two substitutes: tricksy Theo Walcott and Andy Carroll, a pony-tailed battering ram who often looks as if he has wandered on to the pitch direct from the saloon bar of the Coal Heavers’ Arms but has a physical presence which unsettles opponents.
Their introduction energised England. Ashley Young had a golden opportunity to open the scoring, but couldn’t find the net. We slumped back in our sofas and reached for another beer. Italy were in the ascendant but were struggling to profit from their superiority. Wayne Rooney could have punished them, but his hair weave wasn’t thick enough to connect with a testing free kick from Steven Gerrar d.
All quiet on the home front: There were bare shelves at Tesco in Bristol (left) after fans stocked up on beer and the M25 was deserted (right) as supporters stayed at home
No 1 fan: England goalkeeper Joe Hart's girlfriend Kimberley Crewe was at the game in Kiev
Flying the flag: A patriotic fan cheers on the team at the Olympic Stadium
Happy and glorious? England fans sing the national anthem before the quarter-final
Crusading spirit: A trio of knights and their damsel cheer on the side in Ukraine
A promising England attack was halted by the referee when an Italian defender conformed to national stereotype and went to ground clutching his face after Scott Parker had accidentally brushed his shoulder. We groaned. Get up you cheat. Five minutes to go, stalemate. Time to contemplate extra time and, whisper it gently, the P-word. Penalties.
Two minutes from the end of normal time, Johnson brilliantly intercepted what looked like certain Italian winner.
And then England had their own chance to seal the deal. A Cole cross, Carroll header and a trademark Rooney bicycle kick which he puts away for fun in training but on this occasion ballooned agonisingly over the bar. Ten minutes into extra time, Italy again hit the post with a speculative cross-cum-shot. Hearts pounded. This would have been a cruel way to be shown the door.
Walcott and Carroll combined to threaten the Italian goal. By now, most of England’s players were running on empty. Scott Parker retired to the bench utterly drained, his last drop of energy spent. As he trudged from the pitch, we remembered that Parker had stepped forward when Roy Hodgson had asked for volunteers in the event of the game going to the P-word.
As Italy pressed, England wilted and again had reason to be grateful for Balotelli’s profligacy.And then, for a heart-stopping moment England looked dead and buried as Italy found the back of the net, only for it to be ruled offside.
While we braced ourselves for penalties, there was time to reflect that whatever the outcome England’s reputation has been resurrected by the performances at this tournament on and off the pitch.
Defeat was no disgrace.
Hold your heads high: Defeat to Italy on penalties was no disgrace at a tournament where expectations were low
Coleen's unlucky shoes
Sparkling: Coleen's trainers brought England no luck in the match against Italy
We are used to seeing her in towering high heels, but Coleen Rooney opted to keep a lower profile in her ‘lucky’ red shoes as she cheered on husband Wayne last night.
The 26-year-old revealed her secret weapon â€" a pair of personalised Converse trainers â€" via Twitter last week.
She was wearing the red shoes on Tuesday when her striker husband secured England’s place in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals with the winning goal against Ukraine.
After celebrating with two-year-old son Kai, Mrs Rooney tweeted a picture of the diamanté encrusted trainers and said: ‘Had my red converse on for the match tonight... I’ll have to wear them Sunday now!’
And the mother-of-one confirmed she was indeed wearing her lucky charms again by posting another picture of the shoes on Twitter last night.
Alongside it, she posted a message to a friend which said: ‘Hi love, got them on!’
Earlier in the day she sent her husband and the sq uad some positive vibes, writing on the website:
‘Lovely start to a Sunday morning! Hot yoga, shower and bagels! Excited for match later... good luck!’
VIDEO: Reaction from England fans after the matchÂ
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The English mentality has still to change. We still value perspiration over inspiration, hard work over actual skill. World class players like Paul Scholes, around whom the team should have been built, were shunted out to the wing to accommodate fist-pumping clodhoppers. People think shaking your fist and shouting 'come on' a lot is more important than being able to play football. We talk about lions, bulldogs, and so on. Do we think other countries do this? No, they value skill. Players like Pirlo, who last night showed England up for the collection of clumsy, talentless simpletons they are. We need to stop trumpeting effort and heart as the key to success and realise that skill is what counts.
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An amazing performance by Italy. Totally outclassed England. This is by no means a great Italian side, but they do have a spirit and a passion that you will always get in Italian teams. the stats speak for themselves... well over twice as many passes made by Italy. Pirlo was masterful and totally dominated the game... its as if Gerrard was not playing towards the end of the game, as i barely heard his name mentioned. And Joe Hart.... if you are going to make faces and play the fool to put off your penalty taker... then make sure you save it, otherwise you are left looking a complete moron.
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Oh well I expect they will all get paid, large amounts.
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ROONEY!! OLD MARRIED MAN PAST HIS PRIME!!
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Sour grapes from the rest of the UK as always.
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As long as humanity can enthuse and sometimes fight to the death over 22 grown men (physically not mentally) and now women, kicking a lump of leather into a net, or standing for hours watching someone knock a little plastic ball into a hole in the ground, or spend a lot of money and valuable time watching motor cars whizz round and round a track, then the human race should become extinct as soon as possible! As for the so called English football teams, most of them are NOT English! Stanley Mathews and his ilk would turn in their graves at the overpaid uncouth and ill mannered louts who play football these days for vast amounts of money. If the stupid and brain dead public didn't support and pay them, then they would all have to get a proper job, and earn their money! All so very sad!
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Maybe Carol was a better bet for a penalty as he is very big and intimidating. Also, Ashley Cole was so easy to read. Never let a defender take a penalty as they are programed a. not to kick the ball in the goal, and b. to kick it to the goal keeper :/
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Why do managers continue to pick the likes of Rooney and Terry when they do nothing when they pull on an England shirt. it is shameful to see a player who is supposedly one of the top paid in the country dragging himself round the field clearly unfit - I would support a view which says you don't get paid to play for England, you do it for the love of your country and pride only - not many of them seem to have that. I still stand by the belief too that even though David Beckham may be older than the others, he would motivate a team to do well. He can't do any worse than some of those quite shameful performances. - Lynne, Amersham, 25/6/2012 14:08 ======I disagree. I think John Terry was one our best players and quite frankly think that if it hadn't been for his skills and effort there is no way England would have made it to the quarter finals! However, as I said in an earlier post ... Rooney is a waste of time and space (as usual), and shouldn't have be en picked to play!
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I dont watch any football. but all I can add is that anyone paid the amount they are paid should be sacked if they EVER miss the goal . What a bunch of loosers our footballers are. THey are the same every time, get off the partying and booze and work 60 hours per week until you can do the job your paid to do....score goals.
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Ah, I see England's strategy now. Play for a draw if outclassed, hope the opposition misses any penalty awarded then try to win the farcical shootout. It succeeded for Chelsea against Bayern Munich but there was no travesty of justice for the National team! A joke? Yes, one big one from all accounts.
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