Rooney laments shoot-out exit
Wayne Rooney was obviously disappointed with England's penalty shoot-out defeat at Euro 2012
Wayne Rooney admitted "it was a horrible way to go out" after England suffered yet more penalty heartache in Kiev.
For the sixth time, England bowed out on penalties, losing 4-2 to Italy after their Euro 2012 quarter-final had finished goalless. This time, they even managed to get their noses in front before Ashley Young and Ashley Cole failed with successive kicks to leave Alessandro Diamanti to belt home the winner.
"It was a horrible way to go out," said Rooney. "We are all gutted. It was a tough game and we all worked hard, so to lose on penalties is a horrible feeling for everyone."
But he added: "We can hold our heads up high. There are a lot of young players in the squad and that will help them in the next tournament."
Although manager Roy Hodgson was understandably disappointed at his team's plight, he could have few complaints.
Other than one Glen Johnson effort in the opening stages, England created barely a chance of note. In contrast, Italy peppered the England goal at regular intervals and, in Andrea Pirlo, had the game's outstanding player.
"It's a sad moment," said Hodgson. "It is always difficult after a defeat, but the support we received was really quite incredible, from the first minute to the 120th.
"The mood back at home and the feeling we have being supported back here has made the defeat even harder. We so much wanted to stay on and give the fans a reward for the support they've given us. I couldn't ask any more than the players gave. They gave their all.
"We have to accept we weren't quite good enough to win it over the 120 minutes and, in the shoot-out, we went down the same road we've been so many times before."
England were like walking wounded at the end, with Scott Parker's Achilles problem forcing him off during extra-time and Steven Gerrard battling to overcome cramp from before the end of the 90 minutes.
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Radio & TV pundits were claiming Rooney was England's Messi.
No way, this guy is an overweight lump, on obscene wages from MU., way off the mark when it comes to playing for England.
You just have to look towards Andrea Pirlo, a magestic 33 year old master of the ball.
When someone comes along to show our players the skill of retaining the ball, then the opposition will continue to wipe the floor with England players?
Italy completed 833 passes against England's 364, and possession of 68% which shows how we lost the ball all too often.
Two years to the World Cup, give the youngsters with flair and ability the chance to build a team that can master the art of ball possession.
The FA should also limit the number of foreign players in the Englsh Premiership which I believe is a contributing factor to England's lacking in team cohesion at International level.
Im not quite sure why there is so much surprise and upset over the outcome of Euros, A national team that was without a manager until a few weeks before the finals, a patched up team with 2nd/3rd choice players , take that into account I think we did ok. In all honesty im glad we went out to Italy in the end, if we had won on penalties it would have been the wrong result, luck and a good defence and some superb goalkeeping were all that stopped Italy winning in normal time and I think the Germans would have taken us apart and possibly got an embaressing result.
We are not a top team and havent been for a long time, we have to accept this.
hart played great in all games. Terry played good against Italy, but is now past it. gerrard, best all round performance in the squad over the 4 games. Rooney is too over rated at international level, he never lives up to the immense marketing. defence was good, midfield pretty bad. up front, sh~te.
Italy’s tactics were very good. let carroll win everything in the air. let him have the ball at his feet because he can’t do anything with it. he can’t pass for sh~t. so whereas carroll looked like he had a good game, its only because Italy wanted him to have the ball. Young, should have been taken off for chamberlain. welbeck should have stayed on Rooney off.
roy's last sub of the game, Henderson??????? just when you need to win a game, you bring on henderson?????? why?????? am I missing something?
@kevin
WELL DONE at last somebody who knows a bit about football ROONEY should be dropped
his over head fluke last year when the ball was deflected onto his shin was voted by the media as the besst goal for the last 10 years, HE HAD AN EASY OVERHEAD LAST NIGHT AND WAS NOT AGILE ENOUGH TO CONNECT,
Well i hate to be proven right i stated on a previous post that Rooney was overated and should not have been included in squad let alone play last night.
He was bloody useless anyone who after his two performances in this tornament still thinks he is world class really need to lay off the happy pills!!!!!!
We need to do what Germany did and start afresh.
Rooney,Young,Milner,Terry,Gerrard,and a few others who did not play last night have had thier chance and should never play for England again!!
time for major change use the world cup qualifiers as a learning period as the germans did and plan long term.
Of course this won't happen because "Rooney can make a difference in a match" and is our only "world class player" so say the experts.
Christ No wonder we are so far behind the best teams if that is what they believe.
Rooney laments penalty agony. What a load of pish. England need a manager with balls, i.e. Rooney shoud not have even started . He was awful for the two games he played.
Why was Carroll not played from the start? Their only hope last night was to harass the Italians from the air. Also, every man and his dog knew how good Pirlo is - why was he not marked last night? Some of his passes were sublime and the main reason for that was that he more or less was given as much time as he wanted when he had the ball. He ran Gerrard ragged.
I'm an Irishman and will say that Ireland were absolutely abismal - but England gave the a Italians less trouble last night than the Irish did last week.
One more thing - WILL SOMEBODY SHOOT MARK LAWRENSON.. PLEASE. HE IS A COMPLETE RICHARD CRANIUM.
