Clueless England left to rue another night of failure

THE story of this World Cup so far has been the story of under-performing giants: France, Spain, Italy and Portugal have all stuck to the theme, even Germany have added a chapter, and while Brazil don’t yet merit an inclusion you could say their narrow and nervy victory over North Korea should be mentioned in dispatches.

But if one country has early rights to the prologue, it has to be England.

A team packed full of internationally-recognised stars once again failed to deliver last night in a miserable goalless draw against Algeria that leaves them in serious danger of not making the last 16.