Dream turns to ashes: Young and Cole miss as England crash

Italy’s Montolivo was the first to fail to score from the penalty spot but then a shot from Ashley Young hit the bar and one from Ashley Cole hit the goalkeeper and Diamanti put Italy the necessary two goals ahead.

There were no goals in the 90 minutes nor in the extra time which followed.

England manager Roy Hodgson said afterwards that some of his players were “running on empty” by the time they got to the penalties competition.

They had, he said, done well to keep England in the competition right to the last gasp.

Thousands of England fans had flown to Kiev at the last minute for the unexpected chance of seeing their team go through to a semi-final against Germany.

British and Italian police were flown there, too, to assist the Ukrainian authorities. But they were not particularly needed – before and during the marathon match, at least.

And it was past midnight in Ukraine when around 6,000 England fans trudged out of the Olympic Stadium. Back home, about 20 million watched on TV.

David Martin, 35, from Hull, said: “It’s the same again. We just can’t take penalties.”

Hodgson said: “I’m sure we can close the gap and beat one of the top teams. It’s only a matter of time, if this group can continue to show the same desire to work hard and be a team.”