Venables: England paid price for losing lead

Former England boss Terry Venables believes England paid the price for losing ‘‘a great advantage twice’’ as they crashed out of the World Cup in Shizuoka.

Despite taking the lead through Michael Owen, Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men lost 2-1 to goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, who was later harshly sent off for a foul on Danny Mills.

And Venables, who led England to the semi-finals of Euro 96, said ‘‘I think we lost a great advantage twice, firstly when we led 1-0 and then when we had the extra man.’’

Venables, now a pundit on ITV, continued: ‘‘I also think they (England) had to keep the ball having gone one goal up - in this heat it was so important.

‘‘Brazil started fantastically and to lose a man when they did was heartbreaking for them - but we had to try and get the ball.’’

Manchester United defender Gary Neville, who also experienced the dejection of defeat with England in 1996 and at World Cup 98 in France, said: ‘‘I’m gutted for the lads.’’

Neville, ruled out of the World Cup by a foot injury, continued: ‘‘They’ll be devastated at this moment in time - I wish I was there with them now.

‘‘But they should have been committing themselves more at the end - throwing bodies into the box.

‘‘However, Brazil played fantastic football. They showed a lot of resilience and down to 10 men you’ve got to give them credit.

‘‘The England lads will all be sat there with their heads in their hands. The staff will have a good job getting them into the showers to be honest.’’

Former England manager, Bobby Robson, said: ‘‘If we’d got through this one we’d have had a great chance of winning it. We just missed a golden chance.

‘‘We did not use the spare man - we didn’t use the ball or the width.

‘‘We played so well in the first half and got a clever goal but to concede a goal at that time was terrible.’’

Former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne said: ‘‘It can be difficult playing 10 men and the way they kept the ball was unbelievable.

‘‘But we gave away goals at bad times and there were too many long balls at the end.’’

John Barnes, who netted a memorable solo goal for England in a 2-0 win over Brazil at the Maracana in 1984, said: ‘‘I think the result is fair enough.

‘‘The game was spoilt when Ronaldinho was sent off and England did not have the momentum to work the keeper enough.

‘‘Because of the heat England weren’t able to play at the quicker tempo needed quicker.

‘‘However, a lot of the England youngsters will get a lot of experience from that - the future is good for England as far as the European Championships are concerned.’’

Former England World Cup winner and Ireland boss Jack Charlton felt Sven-Goran Eriksson made a mistake to introduce Kieron Dyer onto the left flank.

Brazil were reduced to 10 men after Ronaldinho was sent off and the Newcastle man came on for Ashley Cole, but he was unable to conjure up a single chance.

A disappointed Charlton said: "I’m like everybody else, I was bit disappointed with the last part of the game.

‘‘We are all desperate to get a goal back and shouting at the television and I felt that putting Kieron Dyer on was a mistake.

‘‘He went down the left side a number of times and could have put it in with his left foot, but checked out on his right foot and laid it back to somebody else to cross the ball into the box because he is not capable of doing it down the left side.

‘‘If you are playing balls into the box you have got to get them in from wide angles. You can’t give it your two centre-backs and expect them to produce anything humping balls up the middle and we didn’t create anything.

‘‘I thought the last 25 minutes when we had the extra man we could have played two guys wide.

‘‘It’s disappointing because we were capable of beating them.’’