England continued in the fine tradition of blowing it in major tournaments, by getting hammered by Germany in the U21 Euros final earlier this evening – as the headline says, it was a depressingly familiar story.
To be fair to Stuart Pearce, who has matured as a manager during this tournament, his side was greatly weakened by suspensions – but this was still roughly the same German side that England’s reserves held 1-1 in the group stages a few days earlier, and as such I can only qualify the performance as horribly below par.
As one commenter on the BBC Sport website wrote:
“To lose 4-0 was a disaster, a terrible performance which typified the English mentality to blow it on important occasions.
“It hurts when you realise we will never win a big tournament again… 1966 was a one off… this performance just confirms that.”
Harsh maybe, but there is an element of truth in the words, sadly. Let’s hope Fabio Capello’s senior squad can go one step further than the youngsters next year in the land of the vuvuzelas. Just don’t bet on it.