Penalty misery for England - again (From Daily Echo)
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Penalty misery for England - again
10:57pm Sunday 24th June 2012 in International
Theo Walcott, centre, and other England players cant hide their dismay after the penalty shootout
England 0 Italy 0 (Italy won 4-2 on penalties) England's penalty shoot-out misery continued in Kiev tonight as they crashed out of Euro 2012, writes Simon Stone.
After Mario Balotelli's talk of Peter Pan, the semi-finals of a major tournament are becoming the equivalent of Never Never Land for the Three Lions.
Six times now they have lost in such fashion, the last four at this stage of the competition.
Tonight it was the turn of Ashley Young and Ashley Cole to join the unhappy list of those whose nerve failed them when it mattered.
Both men needed consoling as Italy began their celebrations as, outplayed for long periods of an absorbing game, all England's defensive effort proved in vain.
It means Italy march onto Thursday's semi-final with Germany in Warsaw and leaves Roy Hodgson to pick the bones from an otherwise impressive tournament in time for next autumn's World Cup qualifiers.
Before the drama, all those pre-match predictions of a tight, cagey affair had been blown to bits inside the opening five minutes.
Claudio Marchisio picked out Daniele de Rossi with a peach of a cut-back.
From 25 yards, De Rossi let fly with a spectacular first-time volley, which curved away from Joe Hart's despairing dive, only to crash back off the post.
Starved of possession in those early stages, England eventually countered through Glen Johnson.
The Liverpool defender continued his run after laying a pass off to Ashley Young and was picked out inside the box by James Milner.
Had the chance fallen to a striker, England surely would have scored.
As it was, Johnson took vital seconds manoeuvring the ball into a position from which he could shoot, and when he did, Gianluigi Buffon stood firm to make an excellent one-handed save.
They were the most notable efforts of a surprisingly open start, during which Wayne Rooney sent a diving header over and Andrea Pirlo released Mario Balotelli, only for John Terry to rescue the situation with a vital tackle.
No-one could help when Riccardo Montolivo's disguised pass looped over the England defence and dropped invitingly for Balotelli, whose volley went straight to Hart.
At the other end, Danny Welbeck's precise effort sailed over after he had run onto Rooney's return pass.
It was spellbinding stuff, with Italy having the edge in craft and guile, whilst also looking vulnerable when England attacked at pace.
Balotelli's notoriously fragile temperament resulted in him lashing out at a post after spurning another opportunity, which Pirlo and Antonio Cassano combined to provide.
He ended the half driving over from long-range, extending a contribution substantially more effective than Rooney, whose failure to pick out a team-mate with a cross under no pressure was symptomatic of a player struggling to find his form.
England were caught cold straight after the interval when Marchisio found De Rossi in the box, only for the midfielder to mis-kick a volley wide from barely four yards when he had the time to do much better.
It was the start of an onslaught that had England teetering on the brink as Pirlo took command in imperious fashion.
At 33, the midfielder now assumes the Paul Scholes-role for his country, dropping deep and dictating the tempo, and for a while, England were powerless to stop him.
Terry denied Balotelli at the far-post with a thunderous clearing header, then Hart repelled De Rossi's long-range effort and also Balotelli's follow-up.
Montolivo got to the loose ball first but his shot sailed over.
Hodgson had seen enough and after Balotelli's overhead kick had gone over, Andy Carroll and Theo Walcott were introduced.
With Italy making changes as well, the game lost its shape, so, as had been imagined, extra-time was required.
After their defiant rearguard action, it would have been galling in the extreme for England's defences to be breached by a fluke.
Fortunately, what was intended as a cross by former West Ham man Alessandro Diamanti clipped the far post after Hart reacted too late to the danger it was posing.
Antonio Nocerino thought he had won it six minutes from the end but his header was correctly ruled out for offside.
It merely delayed the inevitable.
That England led after the first two rounds of penalties to give hope, only made defeat all the more crushing as Diamanti delivered the final blow.
How the Euro campaign ended - see tomorrow's Daily Echo
Comments(27)
florida saint
says...
2:30am Mon 25 Jun 12
arthur dalyrimple
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6:10am Mon 25 Jun 12
Chipster
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7:38am Mon 25 Jun 12
The only way we will ever progress is if we lose this mentality of thinking we are better than we are, still its not life or death so its time to move on! :o)
flatulence hero
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7:52am Mon 25 Jun 12
England were second best and as for penalties,both the Ashley clowns looked out of sorts signalling so early on which way they would shoot.
Big disappointment.
JohnItaly
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7:56am Mon 25 Jun 12
sarfhamton
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8:20am Mon 25 Jun 12
Have some faith and try being positive for once.
City Saint
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8:23am Mon 25 Jun 12
sburman
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8:40am Mon 25 Jun 12
Seedhouse the Unrepentant
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9:15am Mon 25 Jun 12
sburman
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9:42am Mon 25 Jun 12
Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:Yes and full of overpaid egos as well.
It was the England team of the last decade that failed to perform. It was full of world class players. Last nights cobbled together team did themselves and us proud - and they got to the quarter final same as the quality squad under Sven and Capello did.
As for a cobbled together squad, with the exception of Jack Wilshire, who else could Roy of picked, this squad was the best we could put forward and a few of them cannot even get a regular place in their club team
The Phantomerer
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9:57am Mon 25 Jun 12
emsworth steve
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10:32am Mon 25 Jun 12
SO50 Saint
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10:41am Mon 25 Jun 12
Avery T Decanary
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11:03am Mon 25 Jun 12
george chivers
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11:15am Mon 25 Jun 12
sburman wrote:We failed to deal with their play maker who had a free role in front of his own defence. He was the heart beat of the game and dominated it with his incisive passing. We failed to close him down and turn him around to face his own defenders.
Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:Yes and full of overpaid egos as well.
It was the England team of the last decade that failed to perform. It was full of world class players. Last nights cobbled together team did themselves and us proud - and they got to the quarter final same as the quality squad under Sven and Capello did.
As for a cobbled together squad, with the exception of Jack Wilshire, who else could Roy of picked, this squad was the best we could put forward and a few of them cannot even get a regular place in their club team
Putting individual performances to one side England's display demonstrates the frailty of a rigid 442 formation. It can't respond to a world class player who operates at bottom point of a diamond and is consistently unmarked in acres of space.
Andrea Pirlo is an exceptional player and we paid homage to him. Never mind the missed penalties we didn't deserve to win and we had the wrong tactics.
To win with 442 at that level you need to have four box to box interchangeable mid fielders; we didn't.
userds5050
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11:45am Mon 25 Jun 12
sburman wrote:Yeah bc La Liga champions Real Madrid don't have any foreign players playing for them.
With reference to previous posts by me, last night demonstrated the damage that the Premier league, with all it’s mercenaries, has done to the English national team and it will not get any better until we adopt the Spanish policy of limiting foreign players and allowing/forcing clubs to develop home talent.
lowe esteem
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12:04pm Mon 25 Jun 12
AFTER SCENARIO: we held Italy for 120 minutes and expected to win? What changed?
CONCLUSION: Domesday! Or look at the positives, be optimistic, if we can play like we did in the first 25 minutes and put the ball away -whether in open play or from penalties-then we move on with Roy.
Give 'em all a lesson Saints!
Ach I The Noo
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1:03pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Hobson82
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1:10pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Seedhouse the Unrepentant
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1:41pm Mon 25 Jun 12
sburman wrote:That's entirely my point. Roy did not have the glut of very good players to pick from that Sven once had.
Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:Yes and full of overpaid egos as well.
It was the England team of the last decade that failed to perform. It was full of world class players. Last nights cobbled together team did themselves and us proud - and they got to the quarter final same as the quality squad under Sven and Capello did.
As for a cobbled together squad, with the exception of Jack Wilshire, who else could Roy of picked, this squad was the best we could put forward and a few of them cannot even get a regular place in their club team
Seedhouse the Unrepentant
says...
1:43pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Ach I The Noo wrote:Yes, must be very sad for you having failed to qualify yet again and with your domestic teams going bankrupt as well.
Well I loved it & had a rather nice pasta dinner at half time....
Ach I The Noo
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1:56pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:Should have taken Gary Hooper if you ask me........
Ach I The Noo wrote:Yes, must be very sad for you having failed to qualify yet again and with your domestic teams going bankrupt as well.
Well I loved it & had a rather nice pasta dinner at half time....
Home Rule for England
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2:08pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Ach I The Noo wrote:Scotland never even qualify for anything let alone win so watching England lose is the best you can do. How pathetic.
Well I loved it & had a rather nice pasta dinner at half time....
Ach I The Noo
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2:15pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Home Rule for England wrote:I feel your pain. It makes me laugh.
Ach I The Noo wrote:Scotland never even qualify for anything let alone win so watching England lose is the best you can do. How pathetic.
Well I loved it & had a rather nice pasta dinner at half time....
Costa Baz
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4:20pm Mon 25 Jun 12
Instead of teaching them how to stash their earnings away into tax avoidance schemes he should have been teaching them basic geometry and giving them a course in "How to create the best angle for passing and receiving the ball".
None of the England players seem to understand that if an opponent stands between you and one of your team mates, who has the ball, then the only way you can receive a pass from said team mate is to move into a position, creating the correct ANGLE for a pass to be made.
Walcott, for example, always amazes me by giving the ball to a team mate and then positioning himself in such a way as to make it impossible to receive the ball back, without an opponent being nutmegged.
Thank God we have managers coming through, like Nigel Adkins, who encourages players to PASS the football and not just resort to hoofball.
Football is a simple game an no two teams play the game more simply than Spain and Barcelona. Short passes to foot by players that are constantly repositioning themselves so that they can receive the ball.
It really is that simple.
Fatty x Ford Worker
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8:18pm Mon 25 Jun 12
florida saint says...
2:30am Mon 25 Jun 12