SAINTS duo James Ward-Prowse and Matt Targett were left to watch helplessly from the bench as England suffered yet more major tournament heartbreak tonight.

Gareth Southgate’s Under-21 team were dumped out of the European Championship after a 3-1 defeat to Italy.

The result meant England finished bottom in Group B and missed out on a place in the semi-finals.

Neither Ward-Prowse nor Targett could do anything to help the situation, with both finishing the night as unused substitutes.

It capped a disappointing personal tournament for both.

Midfielder Ward-Prowse, 20, only featured in the first 54 minutes of the opening 1-0 defeat against Portugal, before being dropped for the 1-0 victory over Sweden and then last night’s game.

Left-back Targett, 19, did not make it off the bench in any of the three matches.

England had been in with a strong chance of qualifying before kick-off in Olomouc, in host country Czech Republic.

 

A win would have sent them into the last four, while a point would also have proved good enough.

However, England capitulated against an Italian side that had only taken one point from their opening two games.

They fell behind in the 25th minute, as Domenico Berardi lifted an exquisite ball over their back-line, picking out the run of Andrea Belotti, who managed to stretch out a foot and guide the ball into the top corner as it dropped out of the air.

The situation got doubly worse two minutes later, as Italy doubled their lead.

Lorenzo Crisetig ran deep into England territory, before finding Marco Benassi, whose low shot from the edge of the area found the bottom corner after deflecting off the legs of Ben Gibson.

Any hopes of a spectacular comeback were dashed with just under 20 minutes remaining, as Benassi headed in his second goal of the night from Marcello Trotta’s hooked delivery.

Nathan Redmond did pull a goal back deep into added time, but it was little consolation.