Same old England deficiencies - just so uncomfortable on the ball; too many panicky hit'n'hope passes that don't go to feet; woeful lack of movement off the ball. The only positive has benn the back 4 - but then, that was very much helped by totally drilled defensive structure encompassing the midfield, too. All just too negative.

Got exactly what they deserved - but it could have been so different, as England gave it more of a go in the 1st half, yet simply allowed Italy to dictate the game from half time onwards.

Anyway, my scores on the doors across the whole tournament for the squad who played (out of ten):

Hart - 6.5

Johnson - 7.5

Terry - 8

Lescott - 7

Cole - 6

Parker - 6

Gerrard - 8

Milner - 5

Young - 3

Wellbeck - 4

Rooney - 2

Walcott - 4

Oxlade-C - 6

Carroll - 5.5

Henderson - 4

Downing - 3

Defoe - 3

The one player I was impressed with last night - and not one I'm normally a fan of - was Johnson. He played well defensively and obviously offered something going forward.

Young was cack, as he has been for the whole tournament, which has been a surprise, because normally I would rate him. Maybe he's simply not good enough for international football.

He gave the ball away too easily, although he was far from being the only one.

I still reckon Jones, Smalling and Cleverley will make the leap to international football on a regular basis. It's just a question of when.

Walker's time may not have come yet, although I see him eventually ousting Johnson.

Don't forget Wilshere and Rodwell.

What I'm disappointed at is Walcott being kept out on the wing by Wenger. Whilst he's fast and can beat a man, can read the game pretty well and his delivery has improved, I do still see him as a more central attacker/striker. I thought he was the natural successor to Henry there. Whilst he's playing on the wing, he isn't going to develop as a striker. I'd like to see Lennon have an injury-free season, as I think he's capable of playing wide right for england.

Adam Johnson also needs to move from thre Etihad if he;s going to develop.

Can't argue with them Marks, And funny that the 2 highest are the 2 oldest players !!

...Roll on the Olympics, C'mon Team GB

I mentioned Wilshere in a subsequent post. He's a given for the England team.

As for Rodwell. Huge potential, but the problem with his career so far, as everyone knows, has been injuries.

And speaking of Everton, it will be interesting to see how Barclay develops.

Funny how people read the game isn't it, I thought Gerrard was one of our worst players last night, he constantly gave the ball away and was caught out of position almost all night...........or was he playing just off the front man??

The frightening lack of depth in our squad is, well, frightening........when I looked at the bench and saw Carroll (who admittedly played ok), Downing, Henderson and Defoe I thought, might as well leave these lads on as you won't be improving anything.

We did well to get out of the group but the remaining 4 teams in the competition are all streets (and I mean streets like the M1) ahead of us in terms of ball retention, movement, football knowledge and understanding of the game.

Not all bad though, if you accept that getting out of the group in these competitions is our lot in world football (and it so is) then you are happy this morning, as I am. We are on a par internationally with Sweden, Czech's, Russia, Denmark etc and they didn't get out of their groups.

Not really surprising though Matty, did anyone do any stats on ho wmany times Gerrard and Rooney passed to an Italian

I think a lot of that has already become a myth because from what I saw we had a lot of luck in the group stage and we rode it. Against France we were often dire, and Sweden outclassed us for large parts of the game. I can't really recall the Ukraine match which probably says enough in itself. Has Woy moved things on? Would we have done worse or better with Postman Pat? I don't know, but the experience of the last couple of decades says it probably wouldn't have made much difference.

I suggest you should get the job rating in the  the Daily Telegraph.  I've just had a look this morning and yet again it flatters our players considerably.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/9353347/Euro-2012-England-v-Italy-player-ratings.html.  What a load of dishonest bullexcrement - and lets not gets started on our players!

Forwards and midfield didn't turn-up last night. Had it not been for some stout defending and woeful finishing from the Italians, we'd of been dead and buried in normal time.
All the good spirits and teamwork mean squid all if you haven't got the class required to do the basics.
Italy deserved the win but the Germans will be a different class of opposition on Thursday.
Spain - Germany final for me.

Positives last night that we defended well and we didnt lose the game. But England will never get close to winning a tournament if we cant keep hold of the ball. This is something that is not going to change quickly but perhaps with the new Burton National Football centre we can begin to address this problem.  I think Roy was a good appointment and has got the most out the players he has, we have a few good players to come back from injury that we will need to qualify from a difficult World cup group.

At the moment England are very much a also ran in world football as we have been for over 40 years. I dont think that is going to change anytime soon.

The fact that midfielders doubled up as defenders says it all sadly. Subconciously our game plan was to defend. Pirlo was given free reign of the pitch and Rooney was pulled out of his natural position to track him. Our attackers have the capability to run at defences and rip them apart. We are a relatively unknown team on the big stage and the opportunity was there for us to shake an Italy side considered poor before the competition started.

We lost the game before we even started sadly. We played defensively and hoped to rely on the lottery of penalties to progress. The fact that Hart had studied countless footage of Italian penalties while Buffon resorted to watching porn says it all realy !

Poor performance by England. They were overrun by a mediocre Italian side (Pirlo apart). They did defend well, however, but I also thought they sat too deep.

Flag Down ,ready for 2014.Lets hope england controls the ball by then...

Far, far too deep.

I don't take the flag downs though as I also like a host of other sports that deserve my support and I'm patriotic sort.........not to be confused with jingoism

Durham or England though?

Whilst Defoe did make a 13-minute cameo at the end of the France game, Downing only made an appearance in our collective nightmares! (which apparently seemed so real to me...)

I think that any fans out there (no one here I must emphasise) that thought the Italians were going to be pushovers last night were seriously deluding themselves. Quite a lot was made in the media during last week about how fortunate England were to have avoided Spain in the last 8, but most people knew that last night was going to be a hard slog for England, and that's exactly how it turned out. When it went to penalties I did think that England had a slight chance, mainly becuase Italy don't have a great record themsleves in shoot-outs (they went out of three successive World Cups on penalties in the 90's and also went out of the last Euros in 2008 to Spain in this way). Italy were definitely the better team on the night though.

 I heard that about Buffon and it made me laugh! TBH studying 'countless footage of Italian penalties' sounded like a recipe for confusion, although to be fair pens are a lottery. Actually Hart when down in my estimation though because of his ridiculous face pulling and arm waving. I expect he thought it made him look self confident and assured. Now I'm no psychologist, but to me it came across in completely the opposite way, making him look as though he was bricking it and completely insecure.

I didn't even bother watching the shootout as the outcome was inevitable before the first penalty was taken.