England suffer familiar frustration

England U21s 1 Italy U21s 3: England have once again fallen short at a major tournament after Gareth Southgate’s side capitulated against Italy, resulting in a third successive group-stage exit at the U21 European Championship.

A year to the day since a goalless draw with Costa Rica rubber-stamped the senior team’s disastrous World Cup, the new generation blew a golden opportunity to progress to the semi-finals in the Czech Republic.

England’s destiny was in their own hands after the last-gasp win against Sweden, but it proved a false dawn as the Azzurrini triumphed 3-1 and the national team was once again found wanting.

Questions will be asked of Southgate and his selections after the Young Lions finished bottom of Group B, but few expect the head coach to pay with his job like predecessor Stuart Pearce.

Unlike the unmitigated disaster of Israel two years ago, this tournament has been more a case of what could have been — epitomised by Danny Ings and Harry Kane coming close before defensive hesitancy allowed Italy to take the lead.

Within two minutes of Andrea Belotti impressively turning home against the run of play, Luigi Di Biagio’s side were celebrating a second as Marco Benassi’s low strike took a crucial deflection off Ben Gibson and trickled home.

Jesse Lingard attempted to add to his wonder-strike against Sweden after half-time, but he and his England team-mates only fell further behind thanks to Benassi’s fine header.

Nathan Redmond rifled home in stoppage-time but it was too little too late as England exited at the group stage — a fate they shared with Italy after Sweden’s late equaliser against Portugal.

“In many aspects we did get a desired performance in the way we played and moved the ball and created chances. We let really poor goals in,” Southgate said.

“You can be as attractive as you like between the penalty boxes but games are decided at either end and we didn’t take the chances we had until the final minute. We let poor goals in and it’s a cruel lesson for them but I can’t be critical of their attitude, their application and effort.”

England U21:

Butland, Jenkinson, Stones, Gibson, Garbutt, Chalobah, Forster-Caskey (Loftus-Cheek 63), Redmond, Ings, Lingard, Kane.

Italy U21:

Bardi, Zappacosta (Viviani 83), Rugani, Romagnoli, Biraghi,Benassi, Crisetig, Cataldi, Berardi (Sabelli 62), Belotti, Trotta (Verdi 75).

Referee:

Sergei Karasev (Russia).